Methamphetamine contamination draft guidelines issued

The new standards will have major implications for the way social landlords deal with the testing of properties for methamphetamine, both manufacture and use. It will also affect the remediation techniques used and has implications for both policies and procedures for the testing of properties and for remediation. They will have an impact on organisations asset management and will need to be built into maintenance budgets and organisational risk strategies.

For the first time the draft standards recommend different thresholds for testing properties where Methamphetamine has been used as opposed to manufactured. While this approach is welcomed, the levels of contamination proposed are still very low, potentially resulting in high costs to landlords irrespective of the cause of contamination. The guidance on approaches to testing and decontamination do not make clear enough recommendations on the most appropriate form of remediation for properties where Meth has been used rather than manufactured. They also take a very conservative level of contamination not supported by robust scientific foundations as discussed in the NZ Drug Foundations ‘Matters of Substance’ article of August 2016.

CHA is preparing a submission and we would encourage members to do so too. If you would like to send us your comments please email them to Marc here.

The public comment period for the draft standard is open until 20 February 2017 with the final standard expected in April 2017. View/download the draft and submit comment here.