On 1 December 2026 the workplace exposure limits (WEL) list replaces the workplace exposure standards. It includes a limit for diesel particulate matter (DPM): 0.01 mg/m³ as an 8-hour time-weighted average, measured as respirable elemental carbon. PCBUs must ensure no one at the workplace is exposed above it. If your site runs diesel plant, here’s...
Safe Work Australia’s July 2026 Guide for PCBUs: Air monitoring and the workplace exposure limits for airborne contaminants sets out when air monitoring is needed. From 1 December 2026, worker exposure to airborne contaminants must not exceed the exposure limits published by Safe Work Australia. It’s written for employers and the people who run WHS...
Diesel exhaust tends to get filed as an underground problem: miners, tunnellers. Safe Work Australia’s list goes well beyond them. Its guidance on diesel engine emissions names forklift drivers and loading dock workers alongside the people underground. With an exposure limit for diesel particulate matter in the WEL list from 1 December 2026, it’s worth...
Polyvinyl chloride respirable dust did not have its own exposure standard. From 1 December 2026 the Workplace Exposure Limit is 1 mg/m³ as an 8-hour average for the respirable fraction, once your WHS regulator gives it effect. That is the May 2025 Safe Work Australia change. Until 30 November 2026 the current exposure-standards list still...
Phthalic anhydride’s 8-hour limit is cut from 1 ppm to 0.0003 ppm. That is the figure in Safe Work Australia’s May 2025 changes, applying from 1 December 2026 once your WHS regulator gives it effect. Until 30 November 2026 the current exposure standard still governs. The published row does not add a short-term exposure limit....
Ethylene oxide (oxirane) is leaving the numbered list. Safe Work Australia’s May 2025 changes class it as a non-threshold genotoxic carcinogen with no Workplace Exposure Limit from 1 December 2026. The note on that row is plain: no limit from that date; eliminate or minimise so far as reasonably practicable; comply with the current exposure...
Dichloroacetic acid did not have a workplace exposure standard. From 1 December 2026 it has a Workplace Exposure Limit of 2.5 mg/m³ (0.5 ppm), an 8-hour time-weighted average, once that limit is given effect in your jurisdiction. Safe Work Australia’s May 2025 changes list is the source. That row does not set a short-term exposure...
There is a date circled on the calendar for every business that works with airborne contaminants. That date is 1 December 2026. From that point, the Workplace Exposure Limits for airborne contaminants replace the current Workplace Exposure Standards across Australia. For some businesses, this will feel like a name change. For others, it means real...
Most Australian businesses with revenue above $100 million have been filing Modern Slavery Statements since 2019. The statements went in annually, got lodged on the register, and for a lot of organisations that was roughly where engagement with the issue ended. That approach will not hold up much longer. The Australian Government is advancing reforms...
This August update summarises the legislation, regulations and codes flagged in our register across Queensland, Victoria and Western Australia. The August register includes updates across work health and safety, electrical safety, building regulation, education and care services, commercial fisheries, portable long service leave, major sports facilities, and mine-site road and traffic management. At a glance...
Recent Comments