Under work health and safety regulations, many airborne contaminants are subject to workplace exposure standards. Based on scientific research into the health effects of different chemicals, the exposure standards are published by Safe Work Australia and regularly updated.
These exposure standards have legal force with penalties attached: persons conducting a business or undertaking (PCBUs) must ensure that no person in their workplace is exposed to an airborne contaminant at a concentration exceeding the relevant exposure standard. They must arrange air monitoring when necessary to determine if there is a risk to their workers’ health.
Note that while the exposure standards provide a legal limit, even concentrations below the exposure standards can potentially be a health hazard. For that reason, work health and safety regulations require that exposure to airborne contaminants be kept ‘as low as is reasonably practicable’ to protect workers and others in the workplace.
There are three different kinds of exposure standard, with some airborne contaminants being subject to more than one. An exposure standard can be defined as:
- 8-hour time-weighted average (TWA)
- short term exposure limit (STEL)
- peak limitation.
To understand exposure standards, it’s important to understand the differences between these three ways of defining them.
8-hour time weighted average
Most commonly, exposure standards are expressed as an 8-hour time weighted average or TWA. This is defined as ‘the maximum average airborne concentration of a substance when calculated over an eight hour working day, for a five day working week’. In other words, it’s permissible for the concentration of the contaminant to exceed the specified level for a short period of time, as long as the average level over a working day and week is below the limit.
Time-weighted averages reflect the fact that for many chemicals, negative health impacts mainly come about through continuing exposure over a period of time.
Short term exposure limit (STEL)
Some contaminants have a short term exposure limit as well as an 8-hour time-weighted average. The short term exposure limit is defined as ‘a 15 minute time weighted average exposure limit which must not be exceeded at any time during an eight hour working day, even if the exposure during the full day is less than the TWA exposure standard’.
Short term exposure limits reflect the fact that some chemicals have risks associated with high levels of exposure, even for a short period.
Peak limitation
Finally, some chemicals are so hazardous that even momentary exposure above a certain level is hazardous to health. For these chemicals, the exposure standard is expressed as a peak limitation, which is a concentration ‘not permitted at any time’.
How Airsafe can help
As our name implies, air quality monitoring is one of Airsafe’s core activities, and we have the equipment and expertise to monitor for a large variety of airborne contaminants, including respirable crystalline silica, diesel particulate matter, and other kinds of inhalable and respirable dust. Whatever the relevant exposure standards, our air monitoring reports will give you a definitive answer about whether they’re being exceeded.
To make sure you’re complying with workplace exposure standards, call Airsafe on 1300 888 338.
The long-running James Hardie legal saga contains many lessons about the history and ongoing risk of asbestos in Australia.
The long timeline is a reminder that the effects of asbestos exposure can take decades to appear. While asbestos is now banned in Australia, asbestos-related disease will be with us for many years to come, with a huge human and financial cost.
There are also lessons in the behaviour James Hardie’s senior leaders, and the company’s repeated efforts to evade or minimise responsibility for the workers it exposed to asbestos. Apart from the human cost, these efforts ultimately led to enormous reputational damage to the company, and legal liabilities that will be with them for the foreseeable future.
Few businesses will have to deal with asbestos on as large a scale as James Hardie, but any business that tries to ignore, sidestep or evade its responsibilities to keep its employees safe from asbestos exposure will ultimately pay the price.
Timeline of events
1951: James Hardie Industries is listed on the Sydney Stock Exchange. At the time, the company is the largest manufacturer and distributor of asbestos-containing products in Australia, most notably asbestos cement sheet (also known as fibro).
1978: Asbestos-related diseases including asbestosis and mesothelioma begin to be diagnosed in the company’s former employees. The company begins putting warning labels on its products explaining that inhalation of the dust could result in cancer.
1980s: Former employees of James Hardie’s asbestos operations begin making compensation claims against the company.
1987: James Hardie ceases all asbestos manufacturing, replacing asbestos-containing cement sheet with the asbestos-free fibre cement that is still used today.
2001: Finally acknowledging its role in the rise of asbestos-related diseases amongst its workers, James Hardie sets up a fund to handle asbestos compensation, with a one-off contribution of $293 million. Around the same time, the company relocates its headquarters to the Netherlands.
2003: After just 2 years, the $293 compensation fund runs dry, as the number of affected James Hardie employees continues to grow and the company’s estimated liabilities balloon to $1.58 billion. James Hardie refuses to provide extra funding, leading to fierce criticism from unions, governments and the media.
2004: NSW premier Bob Carr establishes a judicial inquiry led by David Jackson, QC, to determine how much money would be needed to compensate James Hardie’s asbestos victims in full. During the enquiry, the company faces criticism of the modelling used to estimate its liabilities, and accusations that the move to the Netherlands was motivated by a desire to escape its obligations to affected employees.
2006: Following the enquiry, the Asbestos Injuries Compensation Fund (AICF) is formed to implement and administer the agreement between James Hardie and the New South Wales Government. James Hardie Industries commits to funding a new trust which will pay compensation awarded against former James Hardie companies.
2012: A High Court ruling finds that seven former non-executive James Hardie directors misled the stock exchange about the company’s compensation fund for asbestos victims.
Don’t be the next James Hardie
If you’re in charge of a workplace, it’s your responsibility to make sure you’re meeting your legal obligations around asbestos. The penalties for not complying can be severe.
Depending on when your premises were built, this might mean completing an asbestos and hazardous materials survey, and maintaining an asbestos register and management plan for any asbestos that is found.
If you have any questions about how to manage workplace asbestos, call Airsafe on 1300 888 338.
Welding is an activity that’s of vast importance to our construction and manufacturing industries. It’s also one of the riskiest activities that human beings undertake in their work. The hazards associated with welding run the gamut from long-term exposure to heat and noise to serious one-off incidents like burns and explosions.
Some of the most insidious risks from welding come from long-term exposure to fumes, as well as exposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation during electric arc welding.
Both forms of exposure have both been shown to potentially cause cancer. This has led SafeWork Australia lower the workplace exposure standard for welding fumes.
Welding fumes and cancer
In 2017, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) re-classified welding fumes as a Group 1 carcinogen, meaning that there is sufficient evidence to show they are carcinogenic to humans. Previously, they had been classified as Group 2B, meaning ‘possibly carcinogenic to humans’.
The IARC’s reclassification came from a review of a number of studies showing that welders had an abnormally high rate of lung cancer, which could not be attributed to other hazards like smoking or asbestos exposure.
At the same time, the IARC also classified UV radiation generated by electric arc welding as a Group 1 carcinogen, as it has been shown to cause ocular melanoma.
Change to welding fumes exposure standard
In response to the growing evidence of the carcinogenic nature of welding fumes, SafeWork Australia has reduced the workplace exposure standard for welding fumes (not otherwise classified) from 5 mg/m3 to 1 mg/m3 as an eight-hour time weighted average. This means that the welding fumes a worker can be exposed to must not exceed 1 mg/m3 when averaged over what is considered a typical working day.
This change in exposure standard came into force in NSW on 18 January 2024.
It’s important to note that this is the exposure standard for welding fumes in total. Individual substances that welding fumes contain also have their own standards listed in the Workplace exposure standards for airborne contaminants – all of which also need to be met.
The type of airborne contaminants generated by welding depend on the specific type of welding and the materials used, but some common substances known or suspected to carry cancer risks include beryllium, cadmium oxides, hexavalent chromium and nickel.
Your responsibilities
If you’re in charge of a workplace, you have a legal responsibility to ensure your workers are not exposed to welding fumes exceeding the standards, whether for total welding fumes or individual components.
How Airsafe can help
Identifying, evaluating and controlling the hazards associated with welding fumes is a complex process, and difficult to do without expert help. Airsafe’s occupational hygiene team can help you navigate the process and help you ensure that you’re complying with the law and your people are protected from potentially lethal health risks.
Whether your welding activities are new, or you have existing risks assessments and controls that need to be reviewed, Airsafe can help. Our expert technicians can also conduct air monitoring to determine whether your welding processes comply with the exposure standards.
For any questions about welding fumes, contact Airsafe on 1300 888 338.
The news about asbestos-containing mulch being discovered in sites across Sydney, including schools, has raised once again the issue of asbestos in schools. Over the years, the risks posed by potential exposure to asbestos on the part on students and staff have frequently been in the news.
Following a number of discoveries of asbestos in NSW public schools in the early 2000s, the state government reviewed its approach to asbestos, creating a centralised asbestos management plan which all government schools are required to follow. Each individual school’s asbestos register is also publicly available online.
This increased coordination and transparency has been a welcome development, but it has also revealed the scale of work required to clean up the legacy of asbestos in school buildings and groups. Inevitably, not everyone has been satisfied with the speed of the government response.
The schools asbestos management plan
The NSW Department of Education’s Asbestos Management Plan for NSW Government Schools is the central document outlining the responsibilities and approach that the government requires schools to take around asbestos identification and control.
The management plan includes:
- a list of requirements around asbestos, including notification of planned asbestos works and maintaining an asbestos register
- responsibilities of the various parties involved, including the Department of Education, school principals and contractors
- principles and processes around the management of asbestos
- control and mitigation measures where asbestos is identified
- specific advice on asbestos when found in school grounds and buildings respectively
- procedures for asbestos removal
- procedures for responding to asbestos incidents and emergencies.
In addition to this central asbestos management plan, some schools where asbestos has been identified also have site-specific asbestos management plans.
The schools asbestos register
All government schools in NSW where asbestos has been identified have are part of a publicly available schools asbestos register. You can look up any school to see its own asbestos register, together with works notifications or site-specific management plans where relevant.
While making school asbestos registers public is praiseworthy from a government transparency point of view, it’s also increased the visibility of asbestos issues. Analysis of the registers has found, for example, that more than 100 schools contained friable asbestos as of 2019, leading to criticism from the then state opposition.
Although concern about asbestos is always understandable, especially when there’s a possibility of children being exposed, it’s also worth noting that the perception of an asbestos crisis in schools is partly an effect of the public availability of information – and it’s better to have the information out there than not.
Airsafe’s involvement
Airsafe has been deeply involved in the process of auditing and advising schools over several decades. We continue to offer services to schools including asbestos surveys and asbestos registers, to help keep NSW’s kids and teachers safe.
For any questions about our services, you’re welcome to contact Airsafe at 1300 888 338.
From 1 July 2024, there will be an Australia-wide ban on the use, supply and manufacture of engineered stone benchtops, panels and slabs.
The ban is coming into place in response to rising rates of silicosis, an occupational lung disease caused by breathing in small particles of silica dust. Although there are a range of activities that can generate silica dust, the rates of silicosis have been particularly high in engineered stone workers.
What is engineered stone?
According to updated Work Health and Safety Regulations, engineered stone is defined as an artificial product that:
- contains at least 1% crystalline silica as a weight/weight concentration,
- is created by combining natural stone materials with other chemical constituents (such as water, resins, or pigments), and
- becomes hardened.
Engineered stone has been commonly used in Australia for kitchen benchtops, as an economical alternative to natural stone products like marble or granite. It’s known by various brand names including Caesarstone, Essastone and Quantum Quartz.
Why is engineered stone being banned?
When products containing crystalline silica are subject to mechanical processes like crushing, drilling, grinding, sawing or polishing, they can generate tiny, invisible dust particles known as respirable crystalline silica (RCS).
RCS particles can penetrate deep into the lungs and cause a serious, irreversible disease known as silicosis. Over the past decade, there have been over 500 documented cases of silicosis in Australia.
Crystalline silica occurs in natural stone as well as engineered stone. So why the ban on engineered stone specifically? According to Safe Work Australia:
While silicosis cases have been reported in workers using different types of silica-containing materials across a range of industries, a disproportionate number of silicosis cases are in engineered stone workers. In these workers (compared to workers exposed to silica from natural sources), silicosis is associated with a shorter duration of exposure to silica, faster disease progression and higher mortality.
Will silica still be a concern after the ban?
Even after the engineered stone is in place, there will still be a need for respirable crystalline silica risk assessment and monitoring services like those provided by Airsafe. This is for a number of reasons:
- The ban is only on engineered stone. Other products that contain crystalline silica, including natural stone, are not being banned. While the risk from working with these products is lower, it still exists and needs to be controlled.
- Only engineered stone benchtops, panels and slabs are being banned. Engineered stone products that are not intended to be processed, such as prefabricated sinks, jewellery and garden ornaments, will not be subject to the ban. However, any work that involves processing these products must be controlled.
- Previously installed engineered stone can still be worked on. Repairs, minor modification, removal and disposal of engineered stone benchtops, panels and slabs installed prior to the ban won’t be subject to the ban. However, all such work will need to be controlled, and businesses will need to notify WHS regulators such as SafeWork NSW in advance.
How can Airsafe help?
Whether you’re preparing your business to comply with the ban, or planning to engage in permitted work with engineered stone or other silica-containing products after it comes into force, Airsafe’s expert occupational hygiene team can help you comply with your legal obligations and keep your workers safe. We offer risk assessment, air monitoring and advice on controlling exposure to respirable crystalline silica.
For any questions about crystalline silica, call us on 1300 888 338.
In the mid 2010s, the benign sounding ‘Mr Fluffy’ became a household name in the ACT and parts of New South Wales, as asbestos was discovered remaining in homes where asbestos-containing loose fill insulation had been installed by the company of that name during the 1960s and 1970s.
The discovery was all the more shocking as a 1990s government eradication program had assured the affected homeowners that their homes had been rid of asbestos.
A decade later, we’re now in a position where the loose fill asbestos insulation issue is being resolved – but only at the expense and inconvenience of acquiring and demolishing hundreds of affected homes.
Why is loose fill insulation deadly?
Loose-fill insulation is a particular concern for asbestos exposure because, as the name implies, it’s a loosely packed form of asbestos which makes it easy for fibres to circulate in the air. In other words, it’s an inherently friable form of asbestos with a high level of toxicity.
With loose-fill insulation, as with other forms of friable asbestos, there is nothing to prevent fibres becoming airborne. It therefore poses a much greater risk than bonded forms of asbestos like fibro in two ways: it’s easier to breathe in asbestos fibres if you go up into your ceiling, and its also easier for fibres to drift from the ceiling to other parts of your house.
Governments forced to take action
As the scandal progressed, both the ACT Government and NSW Government were forced to take increasingly serious action. The conclusion reached was that this particular form of asbestos was so difficult to eradicate that there was no adequate form of remediation short of demolishing the affected houses. In the end, both governments launched buyback schemes (with financing from the Australian Government extending to $1 billion in ACT’s case).
Many of the affected houses have already been demolished, and both the ACT and NSW have ongoing programs to clean up the rest.
Loose fill asbestos discovered in Victoria
Meanwhile, in late 2023, there was a sign that the Mr Fluffy saga was not yet over: a small group of properties containing the company’s loose fill insulation were discovered in regional Victoria. The Victorian government is understood to be considering a buyback and demolition scheme similar to that undertaken in the ACT and NSW.
The Mr Fluffy legacy
In a sign of the saga’s deep impact on the ACT community, a forest shelter has opened at the National Arboretum in Canberra as a ‘place of reflection’ to remember the impact of loose fill asbestos on the lives of Canberrans.
At Airsafe, we hope another ongoing legacy of the Mr Fluffy saga will be a greater awareness among Australians of the dangers of asbestos and the need to avoid complacency about its eradication.
If you have concerns about loose fill insulation or any other type of asbestos, call Airsafe on 1300 888 338 to talk about our asbestos services including surveys, testing and air monitoring.
In the past few years, the risks associated with mould in rental properties have frequently made the news across Australia. There are a number of reasons for this:
- The COVID-19 pandemic led to people spending more time at home.
- The pandemic raised awareness of the number of people in the community with compromised immune systems. These people are more susceptible not only to COVID, but also to mould-related health problems.
- The recent crisis in rental availability and affordability has led to an increase in tenants’ advocacy via social media and other online channels, with persistent mould a frequent complaint from tenants.
Mould is a frequent source of dispute between tenants and landlords, often reaching the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal (and equivalent bodies in other states) when the problem is not fixed or there’s a disagreement about who is responsible. Landlords can be held liable for issues caused by mould in their properties, with penalties of $5,000 or $6,500 not uncommon, as well as orders to reimburse rent.
Who is responsible for mould?
One of the reasons mould often leads to disputes is that it may not be clear where the responsibility lies. Of course, when tenants move into a property, they have a right to expect that it will be free of mould, but over the course of a tenancy, actions of tenants like inadequate cleaning or leaving windows permanently closed can contribute to the growth of mould.
As The Conversation reports, laws around mould in rental properties differ from state to state, but all assign responsibilities to both landlords and tenants.
In New South Wales, the division of responsibility is explained on the NSW Fair Trading website. There are minimum standards that rental homes must comply with, including adequate ventilation. If a mould issue arises because of a breach of these standards, or because the landlord fails to make a timely repair, then the landlord is responsible.
On the other hand, if the mould develops during the tenancy as a result of the tenant’s actions, then the tenant may be responsible for fixing it.
Possible disputes can be avoided by:
- both parties making sure any existing mould is noted on the condition report
- the tenant notifying the landlord as soon as possible if they see any signs of mould or damp developing during the tenancy
- the landlord doing any necessary repairs as quickly as possible.
How Airsafe can help
At Airsafe, we don’t get involved in the blame game between landlords and tenants, but we can help make sure that mould issues don’t escalate.
We offer expert mould testing and inspection services. This includes an initial investigation and laboratory testing to determine whether mould is present and if so, what kind, and to make recommendations for treating it. Once the mould issue has been addressed, we can also complete a clearance inspection to confirm that our recommendations have been carried out and mould is no longer a problem.
Don’t leave mould to grow: call Airsafe on 1300 888 338 and get the benefit of our expertise.
If you live in Sydney, you’ll already know that mulch containing asbestos has been found in locations across the city, including parks, schools and train stations.
These discoveries and the resulting EPA investigation have caused a huge increase in demand for Airsafe’s asbestos services. If you’re intending to engage Airsafe in the foreseeable future for something asbestos-related – for example, conducting an asbestos audit or updating an asbestos register – you should contact us immediately to avoid lengthy delays.
Asbestos found in mulch at sites across Sydney
The current emergency began in early January 2024, when asbestos was discovered in a playground in the Rozelle parklands. Since than, asbestos has been found in mulch at more than 30 locations, with hundreds more potential locations under investigation.
The asbestos discovered so far is contained in mulch supplied by manufacturer Greenlife Resource Recovery, although the company insists its testing procedures are adequate.
Bonded asbestos in mulch: less risky?
You may have read that most of the asbestos found in Greenlife mulch has been bonded asbestos – that is, asbestos that is mixed with another material and less likely to be airborne.
It’s true that bonded asbestos poses less immediate risk than friable asbestos like that found in Harmony Park in Surry Hills. But that’s not a reason for complacency: bonded asbestos can become friable when it’s broken up, which can happen over time with normal weathering. So it’s important that wherever asbestos is found, action is taken now to avoid risks in the future.
Airsafe can help – but don’t delay
WIth our nationally renowned and accredited expertise in asbestos and hazardous materials, it’s no surprise that Airsafe’s asbestos consultancy and testing services have been in extremely high demand as this crisis has escalated.
If you’re planning to engage Airsafe for any asbestos-related service in the near future, you should contact us immediately to avoid a possible long wait.
Airsafe is dedicated to timely service, but at the same time, we don’t cut corners. Our asbestos services are provided by Licensed Asbestos Assessors, and we never use inexperienced temporary staff to meet spikes in demand. To avoid delays, call us today on 1300 888 338 or fill in the enquiry form on this page.
Airsafe offers a full suite of asbestos consultancy and testing services including: