Safe Work Australia is consulting on proposed options to clarify and improve health and air monitoring requirements for hazardous chemicals in the model Work Health and Safety (WHS) Regulations to support better understanding and compliance.
Health and air monitoring plays an important role in helping workplaces identify, assess and manage risks from exposure to hazardous chemicals. However, feedback from stakeholders has identified that some requirements under the model WHS Regulations can be unclear, create confusion and can be difficult to apply in practice. This is impacting monitoring rates and the consistency of monitoring being undertaken.
This consultation seeks views on proposed options to clarify and improve requirements and support better understanding and compliance. The options aim to clarify issues such as:
- when health monitoring should be provided
- hazardous chemicals which require health monitoring
- how health monitoring thresholds should be applied
- how biological exposure standards should be applied
- how health monitoring reports are provided to regulators
- what information should be provided to registered medical practitioners, and
- when air monitoring is required and how it links to broader hazardous chemical risk management.
This consultation is also seeking feedback on whether there are additional issues with the current health and air monitoring requirements which should be explored, and options which could be considered to address these issues.
Feedback received through the consultation will be used to inform recommendations to Safe Work Australia Members for consideration.
How to have your say
We welcome submissions from all interested stakeholders. Visit our Consultation Hub to read the consultation paper and respond to the questions through our online survey, or by uploading a written submission.
The consultation is open until 11:59 pm (AEST) on Monday 21 September 2026.