Western Australian Consolidated Acts

DANGEROUS GOODS SAFETY ACT 2004 - SECT 3

3 .         Terms used and abbreviations

        (1)         In this Act, unless the contrary intention appears —

        approved means approved by the Chief Officer;

        Chief Officer means the person designated as the Chief Dangerous Goods Officer under section 25(2);

        container means any container, package or other thing capable of containing dangerous goods, or an assemblage of such containers, packages or things, but does not include a pipeline;

        dangerous goods means a substance or article that is —

            (a)         prescribed by the regulations to be dangerous goods; or

            (b)         determined by the Chief Officer under the regulations to be dangerous goods;

        dangerous goods incident means any incident that involved dangerous goods and that caused or, but for intervening events, could have caused —

            (a)         the death of an individual, unreasonable bodily injury to an individual that interferes with his or her health or comfort, or unreasonable harm to the health of an individual;

            (b)         significant and unreasonable damage or harm to property or the environment;

        dangerous goods officer ( DGO ) means a person appointed as such under section 27;

        dangerous goods site means a place —

            (a)         where dangerous goods were or are, or are intended to be, stored or handled; or

            (b)         where the loading or unloading of dangerous goods in connection with transporting them was or is, or is intended to be, carried out;

        dangerous situation means a situation where there is an imminent and high risk to people, property or the environment from dangerous goods;

        driver , in relation to a vehicle, means the person driving or in charge of the vehicle and includes the master of a vehicle transporting people or things by water;

        exemption means an exemption granted under Part 4 and includes such an exemption as amended from time to time;

        give , in relation to any document or information, includes (without limiting sections 75 and 76 of the Interpretation Act 1984 ) sending the document or information by remote communication;

        handle , in relation to dangerous goods, includes to manufacture, process, pack, use, sell, supply, carry (including by pipeline), and treat the dangerous goods and to destroy or otherwise dispose of dangerous goods;

        record means any record of information, irrespective of how the information is recorded or stored or able to be recovered and includes —

            (a)         any thing from which images, sounds or writings can be reproduced, with or without the aid of anything else; and

            (b)         any thing on which information is recorded or stored, whether electronically, magnetically, mechanically or by some other means;

        remote communication means any way of communicating at a distance including by telephone, fax, email and radio;

        risk , in relation to dangerous goods, means —

            (a)         in relation to people — the probability of the goods causing the death of, unreasonable injury to, or unreasonable harm to the health of, one or more individuals;

            (b)         in relation to property or the environment — the probability of dangerous goods causing unreasonable damage or harm to property or the environment;

        safety management document means a document that the regulations require to be prepared in relation to —

            (a)         the safe storage, handling or transport of dangerous goods; or

            (b)         dealing with emergencies involving dangerous goods,

        and that the regulations prescribe to be a safety management document;

        specified , in relation to an order, exemption, notice, or direction, means specified in the order, exemption, notice, or direction, as the case may be;

        substance means a solid, liquid or gas or a mixture of them;

        transport , in relation to dangerous goods, means the transport of dangerous goods by vehicle and includes —

            (a)         the packing, loading and unloading of the goods, and the transfer of the goods to or from a vehicle, for the purpose of their transport;

            (b)         the labelling, marking or placarding of containers and vehicles in which the goods are transported; and

            (c)         other matters incidental to the transport of the goods;

        vehicle means any thing capable of transporting people or things by road, rail or water, including a hovercraft, and it does not matter how the thing is moved or propelled.

        (2)         In this Act these abbreviations are used —

        DGO for dangerous goods officer.