If your workplace generates hexavalent chromium – through welding or cutting stainless steel, spray-painting, electroplating, or working with chromate paints and coatings – you have a duty to keep your workers from being exposed to it. Airsafe can tell you whether it’s present, whether your people are over the line, and what to do about it.
Since 1988, Airsafe has measured airborne contaminants for fabrication, manufacturing, surface-coating and industrial workplaces across Sydney, NSW and Australia.
What is hexavalent chromium?
Hexavalent chromium – chromium (VI), or “chrome 6” – is a toxic form of the metal chromium. It’s created in a range of industrial processes, most commonly:
- welding and thermal cutting of stainless steel and other chromium-containing metals
- chrome electroplating
- spray-painting and working with chromate paints, primers and pigments
- leather tanning, cement work and timber treatment.
It can also form as a deposit (calcium chromate) on hot chromium-containing metal surfaces, sometimes with no visible sign.
Health effects of hexavalent chromium
Hexavalent chromium is a Group 1 carcinogen – there’s clear evidence it causes cancer in humans, particularly lung and nasal or sinus cancer. It’s also what’s known as a non-threshold genotoxic carcinogen, which means there is no level of exposure that can be assumed to be safe.
A number of health effects can come from exposure to hexavalent chromium, including:
- lung, nasal and sinus cancer
- irritation and ulceration of the nose and skin, and in severe cases perforation of the nasal septum
- occupational asthma and allergic dermatitis
- damage to the kidneys, liver and eyes.
Your duties, and a change you need to know about
Until 30 November 2026, hexavalent chromium has a workplace exposure standard – an airborne concentration that must not be exceeded – and your duty is to keep exposures below it.
From 1 December 2026, that changes. As part of the move from workplace exposure standards to workplace exposure limits, hexavalent chromium is one of a group of substances recognised as non-threshold genotoxic carcinogens and removed from the exposure-limit list altogether. Because there’s no safe level, there’s no limit to measure against. Instead, your duty as a PCBU is to eliminate your workers’ exposure so far as is reasonably practicable, and where you can’t eliminate it, to reduce it to as low as reasonably practicable.
In practice that raises the bar: rather than monitoring to a number, you’ll need to show you’ve genuinely minimised exposure. Knowing where it’s coming from, and how much your workers are getting, is the starting point.
How Airsafe can help
Identifying, evaluating and controlling exposure to hexavalent chromium is a complex process, and difficult to do without expert help. Airsafe’s occupational hygiene team can help you navigate it. We:
- assess where hexavalent chromium is being generated in your workplace and who’s exposed
- carry out air monitoring in the workers’ breathing zone, and surface or bulk sampling where it’s needed
- report clearly on what we found and what it means for your obligations
- recommend practical controls, following the standard hierarchy of controls – eliminating or substituting the source where we can, then engineering controls like local exhaust ventilation, before administrative measures and respiratory protection.
For air monitoring, Airsafe is accredited by NATA for volume measurement: we collect the samples on site using NATA-accredited equipment, then send them to a dedicated NATA-accredited analysis laboratory. All our test reports carry metrological traceability.
Where hexavalent chromium contamination needs to be removed or remediated, we don’t do the removal ourselves – we write the specification, put the work out to tender to licensed contractors, oversee and monitor it, and verify it’s been dealt with properly. Because we don’t sell the removal, our report has no stake in the outcome. (Health monitoring of workers is a medical service we don’t provide either – but our air monitoring is what tells you whether it’s required.)
Why choose Airsafe?
Airsafe is one of Australia’s most respected occupational hygiene consultancies, and we’ve been measuring airborne contaminants since 1988. As our name implies, air quality monitoring is one of our core activities – we have the equipment and the expertise to monitor for a wide range of airborne contaminants, hexavalent chromium among them.
Cr(VI) rarely turns up on its own – welding that generates it also generates other metal fumes, and often noise. Rather than dealing with each hazard in a piecemeal manner, you’re better off with a holistic approach, and with the same team able to assess the lot in one engagement, you’re not coordinating several consultants for one site.
4.9 stars from over 640 Google reviews and counting, from manufacturers, builders, contractors and industrial clients across Australia.
“AIRSAFE has become our go-to company for all air monitoring needs. Working for a large paint company, we’ve found their service not only exceptional but also backed by valuable advice. They are consistently reliable, flexible, and a pleasure to work with. These qualities made it an easy decision to choose them as our preferred supplier.”– Nik Pappas, November 2025
“We recently appointed Airsafe to undertake air monitoring and reporting at a brownfield development site during the demolition stage. Their proactive, professional and cost and time-efficient approach and implementation were excellent.”– Carl O. Peterson, December 2021
“I use Airsafe on a regular basis for commercial construction. Liam Matthews and the Airsafe team always get the job done professionally, safely, and in a prompt manner as required. If only I could give more stars.”– Jordan Kissane, September 2021
FAQs
-
It’s created in a range of industrial processes. The most common in Australian workplaces are welding and thermal cutting of stainless steel and other chromium-containing metals, chrome electroplating, and spray-painting or working with chromate paints, primers and pigments. It also turns up in leather tanning, cement work and timber treatment, and can form as a deposit on hot chromium-containing metal surfaces, sometimes with no visible sign.
-
It’s a Group 1 carcinogen – there’s clear evidence it causes cancer in humans, particularly lung and nasal or sinus cancer – and it’s a non-threshold carcinogen, meaning there’s no exposure level that can be assumed to be safe. Short of cancer, it irritates and ulcerates the nose and skin (in severe cases perforating the nasal septum), and is linked to occupational asthma, dermatitis, and kidney, liver and eye damage.
-
There is until 30 November 2026 – a workplace exposure standard you must keep exposures below. From 1 December 2026 that changes: hexavalent chromium is being recognised as a non-threshold genotoxic carcinogen and removed from the exposure-limit list, because there’s no safe level. Your duty becomes to eliminate workers’ exposure so far as is reasonably practicable, and otherwise to reduce it to as low as reasonably practicable. In effect the bar goes up – you have to show you’ve genuinely minimised exposure, not just stayed under a number. Call us on 1300 888 338 if you’d like to talk through what that means for your site.
-
We assess where it’s being generated and who’s exposed, then carry out air monitoring in the workers’ breathing zone (and surface or bulk sampling where it’s useful). Airsafe is accredited by NATA for volume measurement, so we collect the samples on site under our own NATA accreditation, then have them analysed by a dedicated NATA-accredited laboratory – so the results carry metrological traceability. You get a clear report on what was found and what it means for your obligations.
-
No – Airsafe is an independent consultancy. We assess, monitor and advise, but we don’t remove or remediate anything, and that independence is the point. Where contamination needs removing, we can project-manage it for you: write the specification, tender it to licensed contractors, oversee and monitor the work, and issue an independent clearance report. Because we don’t profit from the removal, our advice is about what your site actually needs. Just call us on 1300 888 338 to talk it through.
Contact us about hexavalent chromium today
Hexavalent chromium is one of the more serious carcinogens your workers can be exposed to, and from December 2026 the law expects you to minimise that exposure rather than simply stay under a limit. The first step is knowing where it is and how much there is.
We work across Sydney, NSW and Australia, with travel built into our quotes for sites further afield.
Contact us for a fast quote on hexavalent chromium assessment and monitoring, or call Airsafe on 1300 888 338.
Last updated: May 2026
