With the NSW Police Force recently pleading guilty to OHS breaches after officers were exposed to hazardous substances, a former senior sergeant who nearly died from such exposure tells OHS Alert of the obstacles he has faced in trying to prevent the incident from recurring.
Nader "Ralph" Hanna says that in early 2009 he ended up in a coma and on life support for three weeks as a result of chemical inhalation, because Police stored seized illegal drugs such as cannabis, cocaine and heroin in a type of plastic bag that disintegrated over time.
Hanna and other officers had been directed to audit drug bags in a vault at the Sydney Police Centre for up to eight hours a day.
The vault didn't have an exhaust fan, and the officers were refused personal protective equipment, even though they were constantly overcome by fumes, he says.
A number of bags containing drugs mixed with precursors (substances such as battery acid that are used to make heroin and other drugs "bulkier") fell apart when officers tried to handle them.
Hanna and several of the officers were subsequently injured as a result of chemical exposure, with one senior constable permanently losing more than 30 per cent of his lung function and sustaining psychological injuries, before being medically discharged.
Hanna was awarded workers' compensation, and was medically discharged several weeks ago. Both Hanna and the senior constable are suing Police for damages.
Meanwhile, Police pleaded guilty to breaching the NSW OHS Act in the Industrial Court two weeks ago (6 November), in relation to two incidents of "substance exposure" at the Sydney Police Centre in 2009, a WorkCover NSW spokesperson told OHS Alert.
The employer will be sentenced later.
Bags designed for documents, not drugs
Hanna says he eventually discovered that the plastic bags the drugs were stored in were audit evidence bags manufactured by a South Australian business.
These bags are designed to hold documents, computer disks and valuables such as money, he says.
They aren't archivable, they break down in daylight, their sticky seals aren't designed to contain gases or fumes, and drug precursors "eat away" the plastic.
Hanna says the NSW Police Force started using the audit bags to store drugs about 20 years ago, and he believes police agencies all over Australia continue to do so.
When he complained to NSW Police about the issue, he was informed by Police in October last year that the "use of [the audit] bags to store prohibited drugs reflects actions in compliance with corporately endorsed guidelines".
But a brochure produced by the bag manufacturer, and provided to OHS Alert by Hanna, states that "living plants such as cannabis... should not be placed directly in the bag", and does not name any type of drug in its list of storable items.
NSW Police has not responded to OHS Alert's request (made on Monday) for comments on the OHS prosecution or the use of audit bags to store drugs.
Hanna says "everyone is trying to keep [the bag issue] quiet because it will take a lot of money to rectify".
For example, testing all the drugs stored in such bags to determine which precursors they contain could cost millions of dollars, he says.
"Money always trumps safety. If it costs too much, they're not going to do it."
Hanna notes that in South Australia - the bag manufacturer's home State - he has lobbied the Ombudsman and SafeWork SA to ban the storage of drugs in the audit bags.
SafeWork this month published a "Safeguard" to warn of the dangers of handling "unconfirmed substances" stored in sample bags, but Hanna says this doesn't go far enough.
"They've got to stop the bags," he says.
"We need to let every agency know that these audit bags should not be used as drug bags."
