The two standards that say how to measure workplace dust are open for comment until 11 November

Standards Australia's public comment portal listed 29 drafts open when we read it on 12 October 2026. Nobody publishes that list as a safety list, so, as we did in August, here is the part of it a duty holder should look at. Which drafts make the cut is our judgement, and it is labelled as such.

Why the two dust drafts matter more than they look

A sampling method sounds like a laboratory concern. It is not, once you see where the regulator sends you. Safe Work Australia's guidance on interpreting the exposure standards, last revised in July 2025, says Inhalable dusts should be measured according to AS 3640-2009, and that Respirable dust is measured by a size selective device according to AS 2985-2009. The same guidance names AS 3640 again as a method for the inhalable concentration of mineral fibres. So when an occupational hygienist hands a business a dust monitoring report that says it is under the limit, these are the methods the regulator's guidance names for producing that number.

The distinction between the two fractions carries straight into the new regime. Safe Work Australia's workplace exposure limits document says that for particulate contaminants the WEL applies to the inhalable fraction of particles in the air, unless the WEL list states that it applies to the respirable fraction. That document replaces the current exposure standards at the end of the transitional period; until 30 November 2026 the existing standards still bind, and from 1 December the new limits do. We set out what changes and what does not in our silica and asbestos guide.

Our view: any business whose compliance rests on dust monitoring, which takes in many that cut, grind or drill stone, concrete or brick, has a direct interest in how these two methods are written, and the people best placed to comment are the hygienists who run the sampling. We have not read either draft, which sits behind the portal's login, so we make no claim about what either would change. The point is narrower: the window is open now, it closes on 11 November, and the changeover to the new limits follows on 1 December.

The eight safety drafts, by closing date

Titles are reproduced as the portal lists them, with its punctuation normalised to commas and the word "Redlined" removed from the front of six titles, where it flags a marked-up version of the current standard. The other 21 open drafts cover building materials, cameras and imaging, tolling systems, ambient air methods, pool water and other subjects, and are listed on the portal.

Three more worth a diary note

AS 1674.1, closing 9 December. The model Code of Practice for welding processes tells readers who need guidance on hot work, or on a hot work permit, to see AS 1674.1:1997, whose title the Code gives as fire precautions. The 2026 draft is titled Fire and hot work precautions. Anyone who writes hot work permits for a living, or signs them, is the audience for this one. It closes last of the eight.

AS/NZS IEC 60079.10.2, closing 26 October. This is the part of the explosive atmospheres series that deals with classifying areas where explosive dust atmospheres can occur. It closes first, in two weeks.

AS 5359, closing 28 October. The hydrogen storage and handling draft was already open when we covered the August list, and it is still open, for another 16 days.

How to comment

The drafts sit at comment.standards.org.au, which says: Please log-in and follow the instructions to view or make a comment on a draft. Standards Australia says drafts are open for nine weeks and that All comments from the public are considered in detail by the technical committee and, if necessary, further drafting is undertaken. As in August, we could not establish what registering for the portal involves, so we will not tell you it is free and open to anyone.