Workplace exposure standard for welding fume
Queensland Teachers' Journal, Vol 130 No 7, 3 October 2025, page no 20.
There is now a lower workplace exposure standard for welding fume in Australia.
In January 2024, Work Health and Safety Ministers endorsed the decision to change legislation in Australia. All workplaces must now comply with the new lower limit by law.
What does the workplace exposure standard mean?
The new standard simply means that the average airborne concentration of welding fume inhaled by a worker when calculated over an 8-hour working day, over a five-day working week, must not exceed 1 milligram of welding fume per cubic metre of air. This limit applies to welders and those who work around welders.
This is not optional, this is the law, which will be enforced by health and safety regulators.
Schools are workplaces and the WHS Act requires all PCBUs to ensure the health and safety of workers and others (i.e. students), so far as is reasonably practicable. The QTU has been actively seeking information from the Department of Education about how many schools are impacted by the change to the workplace exposure standard for welding fume and how they are supported to ensure that appropriate controls are put in place to mitigate risk.
Subjects that include welding are important options for many students and it is so vital that they continue. They provide real pathways for these students, as well as feeding into the strong demand for skilled tradespeople in metal fabrication and welding (sheet metal trades workers, metal fabricators and welders - first class).
For more, see Welding Fume Workplace Exposure Standard – How the Law has Changed click here.