Safe Work Australia's new Workplace Exposure Limits for airborne contaminants take effect December 1, 2026, replacing the current Workplace Exposure Standards nationally. The change follows the first review of Australia's exposure standards since 2003, involving consultation with industry, unions and the public before work health and safety ministers agreed to the new list.
Why the Name Is Changing, Not Just the Numbers
WHS ministers agreed to rename WES to WEL specifically to make clear these are limits that must not be exceeded, rather than benchmarks to work toward. The new term also aligns Australia's terminology with international standards.
What's Actually Changing
The WEL list adds 31 substances that never had an exposure limit before, including diesel particulate matter (as respirable elemental carbon), flour dust, Bisphenol-A, and polyvinyl chloride (respirable dust). Existing limits are getting stricter for many chemicals already on the list. Acetone drops from 500 ppm to 250 ppm. Ammonia drops from 25 ppm to 20 ppm. Acrolein drops from 0.1 ppm to 0.02 ppm.
The WEL list adds 31 substances that never had an exposure limit before, including diesel particulate matter, flour dust, Bisphenol-A, and polyvinyl chloride. Existing limits are getting stricter for a large number of chemicals already on the list. Acetone drops from 500 ppm to 250 ppm. Ammonia drops from 25 ppm to 20 ppm. Acrolein drops from 0.1 ppm to 0.02 ppm.
Thirty-three substances are being moved to a separate list with no exposure limit at all. These are non-threshold genotoxic carcinogens, chemicals where no safe exposure level can be established because any exposure carries cancer risk. Chromium VI compounds, dimethyl sulfate, ethylene oxide, and vinyl chloride monomer are among them.
A further six chemicals already banned in Australia, including DDT and aldrin, have also been dropped from the list.
Rather than setting a limit that implies some exposure is safe, Safe Work Australia is requiring PCBUs to eliminate these chemicals where reasonably practicable, or otherwise minimise exposure using the standard hierarchy of controls.
The carcinogenicity notation itself is also being dropped from the WEL list. Safe Work Australia says that the notation only flagged a hazard property without affecting actual exposure levels, and businesses should check a chemical's SDS or the Hazardous Chemical Information System directly for cancer-related hazard information instead.
Nine Chemicals Are Staying the Same
Nine chemicals are the exception to all of this. Benzene, chlorine, copper, formaldehyde, hydrogen cyanide, hydrogen sulphide, nitrogen dioxide, respirable crystalline silica, and titanium dioxide keep their current WES limits when the WEL list takes effect.
Safe Work Australia had recommended tighter, health-based limits for all nine, but WHS ministers couldn't reach a majority in support after reviewing a Decision Regulation Impact Statement published in June 2026. Ministers have requested further work instead. Safe Work Australia's own guidance is direct on this: "There will be no changes to the exposure limits for these nine chemicals from 1 December 2026."
This isn't the first time these nine have been carved out. They were excluded from a broader 2022 upgrade for the same reason, after industry groups raised concerns about compliance costs. A second Safe Work Australia review has now confirmed twice that current limits on all nine are inadequate to protect worker health, and unions along with several public health organizations, including the Cancer Council, have pushed WHS ministers to adopt the recommended limits regardless.
For respirable crystalline silica specifically, this matters because the proposed limit would have cut the current 0.05 mg/m³ exposure standard in half. Businesses working with concrete, stone, or engineered stone should treat RCS as a live compliance risk regardless of how the current pause resolves, since Safe Work Australia's own position is that the existing limit is unsafe.
What Employers Need to Update
Safety data sheets, risk assessments, Safe Work Method Statements, and hazardous chemical registers all need to reflect the new limits before the transition date. Businesses using any of the 31 newly listed substances, or any chemical with a lowered limit, may need to reassess existing engineering controls, ventilation, and personal protective equipment to confirm they still meet the new requirement.
Until November 30, 2026, PCBUs must continue complying with the current WES list. The WEL list becomes mandatory nationally from December 1, following adoption into WHS laws across the Commonwealth, states, and territories.
With under three months of lead time before the transition, businesses managing hazardous chemicals can get ahead of the deadline by checking their chemical register and safety data sheets now against the updated WEL list, rather than scrambling to reclassify substances after December 1 arrives.
References: Safe Work Australia, "New Workplace exposure limits (WEL) to apply from 1 December 2026" | Safe Work Australia, "Changes between the WES and WEL" | Comcare, "Transition from Workplace Exposure Standards to Workplace Exposure Limits"
Mehreen Iqbal
Started with a Bachelors in Microbiology, then a Masters in Public Health; Currently a Workplace Safety Expert.