Have your say on WHS exposure standards for flour dust

Safe Work Australia (SWA) is evaluating the workplace exposure standards (WES) for airborne contaminants to ensure they are based on the highest quality, contemporary evidence and supported by a rigorous scientific approach.

The draft evaluation reports and recommendations for the WES include:

• a recommended WES value
• information about the basis of the recommendation, and
• a summary of the data relied upon to make the recommendation.

The recommended WES values are health-based recommendations made by expert consultants using the streamlined methodology developed by SWA, and have been independently peer reviewed.

WES review - release 10 is now open for public comment and will close on 14 February 2020.

Please note that this release includes chemicals that were deferred from previous releases as well as chemicals that do not currently have an Australian WES.

Chemicals in this release that do not currently have an Australian WES are:

• Diesel engine emissions
• Flour dust (cereal)
• Gallium arsenide
• Hard metals (containing cobalt and tungsten carbide)
• Hexahydrophthalic anhydride
• Hydroxyacetic acid butyl ester
• Hydroxypropyl acrylate

SWA would like feedback on these values, in particular, comments of a technical nature regarding:

• the toxicological information and data that the value is based upon, and
• the measurement and analysis information provided.

The feedback will be considered by SWA when making its final recommendations for workplace exposure standards.

Further draft evaluation reports and recommendations will be released throughout 2020.

For more information, visit here.

Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/Arthur Braunstein