The workplace exposure standard (WES) for respirable coal dust has been reduced from 3 mg/m³ to 1.5 mg/m³.

Your employer must protect you, and anyone else in the workplace, by eliminating or minimising risks in the workplace from airborne contaminants so far as is reasonably practicable. 

Australia’s workplace exposure standards are changing. Find out about the changes and what you need to do here.

Work processes can release dusts, gases, fumes, vapours, or mists into the air. These are known as airborne contaminants, and they may pose a risk to health and safety. Not all airborne contaminants need to be seen or smelled to be present at harmful levels.

Work processes can release dusts, gases, fumes, vapours, or mists into the air.

Work processes can release dusts, gases, fumes, vapours, or mists into the air. These are known as airborne contaminants, and they may pose a risk to health and safety. Not all airborne contaminants can be seen or smelled to be present at harmful levels.

Safe Work Australia is consulting on the proposed workplace exposure limits (WEL) for 9 chemicals (benzene, chlorine, copper, formaldehyde, hydrogen cyanide, hydrogen sulphide, nitrogen dioxide respirable crystalline silica, titanium dioxide).

Safe Work Australia is seeking feedback on the impacts of proposed workplace exposure limits for 9 chemicals. The consultation aims to gather information on the economic, social and health impacts of the proposed exposure limit for each chemical.

Work health and safety (WHS) ministers have agreed to the new WEL list and a harmonised transition period ending on 30 November 2026. This change comes after extensive work and consultation to revise the Workplace exposure standards for airborne contaminants (WES). 

This document is the list

This page provides resources and further information for persons conducting a business or undertaking (PCBUs) and workers on the workplace exposure standards (WES), workplace exposure limits (WEL) and the WES review.

There are several changes between the Workplace exposure standards for airborne contaminants (WES list) and the

From 1 December 2026 Australia will adopt the Workplace

Work Health and Safety Ministers have agreed to an immediate reduction to the workplace exposure standard (WES) for welding fumes (not otherwise classified) has been reduced from an 8-hour time weighted average (TWA) of 5 mg/m

The workplace exposure standard (WES) for welding fumes (not otherwise classified) has been reduced from 5 mg/m³ to 1 mg/m³.

Safe Work Australia is seeking to understand whether certain chemicals, which are non-threshold genotoxic carcinogens (NTGCs), are present in Australian workplaces, in what quantities and for what purpose.

Safe Work Australia is seeking to understand whether non-threshold genotoxic carcinogens (NTGCs) are present in Australian workplaces, in what quantities, and for what purpose. 

Safe Work Australia is seeking stakeholder feedback on a proposed workplace exposure standard (WES) for the diesel particulate matter (DPM) component of diesel engine emissions (DEE).

Safe Work Australia is seeking feedback on a proposed workplace exposure standard for diesel particulate matter.

The workplace exposure standard (WES) for coal dust (containing less than five per cent quartz) (respirable dust) has been reduced from 3 mg/m³ to 1.5 mg/m³.

Information about research into lowering the workplace exposure standard for respirable crystalline silica (RCS).

This report investigates whether a short term exposure limit (STEL) should be implemented to complement the workplace exposure standard (WES) of 0.05 mg/m³ for respirable crystalline silica.

This report investigates the challenges of measuring airborne concentrations of respirable crystalline silica in Australian workplaces at and below 0.02 mg/m³.

Use this guide if you manage diesel exhaust exposures at the workplace.

Exposure to diesel exhaust can cause eye, nose, throat and lung irritation, and suffocation. Long-term exposure can:

This guide helps doctors monitor the health of workers exposed to isocyanates.  

Isocyanates are a group of highly reactive, organic compounds of the formula R-N=C=O.  

This Decision Regulation Impact Statement (RIS) is the result of Safe Work Australia’s review of the current toxicological information and overseas trends in the regulation of lead in the workplace.

Developed to provide laboratories and analysts with a consistent methodology for the sampling and analysis of airborne asbestos fibres in workplaces.

Use this guide if you manage risks to workers exposed to diesel exhaust at the workplace, including: 

• drive-in booth operators 

• miners 

• construction workers 

• oil and gas workers 

This document outlines the chemicals that will be added to and removed from the 

This document outlines the criteria for how to find hazardous chemicals that could be added to or removed from the 

The eight-hour time weighted average workplace exposure standard (WES) for respirable crystalline silica (RCS) is 0.05 mg/m³.

If you are a person conducting a business or undertaking and you store, handle or use hazardous chemicals, you must put up signs to let workers and visitors know about the dangers of the hazardous chemical.  

Lead is a hazard to worker health and safety. Learn about lead in the workplace and the health effects from working with it. 

Hazardous chemicals can be dangerous if they are not properly managed.