Work processes can release fumes, dusts, gases, mists, fibres or vapours into the air. These are known as airborne contaminants, and they may pose a serious risk to your health and safety at work. Not all airborne contaminants need to be seen or smelled to be present at harmful levels. Some of these work processes include:
- construction
- excavation
- tunnelling, quarrying and mining
- use of inorganic pesticides and herbicides
- use of machinery or equipment that generates dust or fumes
- cleaning
- painting.
Your employer and other duty holders, also known as a person conducting a business or undertaking (PCBU), have a duty to ensure that no person at the workplace is exposed to a substance or mixture in an airborne concentration that exceeds the workplace exposure standards or limits.
As a worker, you have the right to be safe at work. You also have a responsibility to protect yourself and others from exposure to airborne contaminants in the workplace. This includes following work health and safety instructions, policies and procedures to protect you from harm caused by these hazardous substances.
If you are worried about a serious risk to your health and safety, you have the right to stop or refuse to carry out work. If you do this, you must inform your employer as soon as you can.
For more information, read the information sheet on Working safely around airborne contaminants: Your rights and responsibilities at work.
How are risks managed?
Your employer must identify and manage the risks from airborne contaminants to keep you safe at work. They also need to consult with workers and any health and safety representatives through this process.
There may already be control measures in place at your work. This could include things like:
- removing materials or processes that cause airborne contaminants in the first place, for example, stopping dry cutting
- using less dusty or harmful products where possible
- removing workers from areas with airborne contaminants, for example, using machinery with an enclosed cabin
- using local exhaust ventilation
- reducing the time you are exposed to airborne contaminants
- providing you with personal protective equipment (PPE) such as masks.
If you are required to wear PPE, your employer must also provide you with training on how to use and maintain it correctly.
Your employer may also be required to conduct air monitoring or health monitoring.