This flexible learning resource has been produced to assist community education on hazardous household chemicals. It is hoped that the resource will be used by:

• Professional educators working in sectors with an interest in environment, health and safety and children’s wellbeing, such as council environmental educators, community health workers and child care workers; and
• Interested parents and carers of young children wanting to inform their peers on ways to reduce their family’s exposure to hazardous chemicals.

Safer Solutions was funded by a grant from the NSW Environmental Trust. This initiative brings together Total Environment Centre, Australian Conservation Foundation, Nature Conservation Council of NSW, NSW Council of Social Services, the Department of Water and Energy and Department of Environment and Climate Change to create an integrated and collaborative education program promoting sustainable living in NSW.

This resource has been developed to assist presenters and facilitators of environmental education, childcare trainers and community health workers in presenting workshops and information on hazardous chemicals in the home. It has been produced to act as both a knowledge resource and to provide adult learning material suitable for application in education and training programs. Each module is independent of each other and it is the intention that educators pick and choose the most relevant information and resources for their audience.

This section contains information on a number of topics concerning hazardous chemicals in the home plus resources, handouts, ideas and suggestions for running a successful workshop.

About the modules

The resource has 5 modules. The first four modules provide learning resources for education workshops on a range of topics relating to hazardous chemicals found in and around the home. The fifth module provides guidance and resources to enable educators to evaluate the workshops they conduct.

Understanding the role of advertising and marketing in household chemical purchasing

Application – This module is designed to raise learners’ awareness about the issues associated with marketing of chemicals and how these affect our choice and use of chemical consumer products.

Regulation, environmental and health effects, and understanding exposure pathways

Application – This module is designed to raise learners’ awareness about the different types of hazardous chemicals in the home and their environmental and potential health effects.

People are concerned that without pesticides their homes will become ‘infested with pests’

Application - This module is designed to raise learners' awareness about the risks associated with using pesticides to manage common pests around the home and safer alternatives.

Using natural cleaning processes to reduce potentially harmful pathogens in the home

Introduction/Background

To ensure that your hazardous household chemical community education program has been successful it’s a good idea to get some feedback from workshop participants.

This is a library of all the downloadable resources from the Safer Solutions Education project. Links to these can also be found elsewhere in context in this section (e.g. in the 5 Modules).