Occupational Hygiene Monitoring Plan for NSW workplaces
What to monitor, who to sample, how often, and what to do with the results. Written for your site and handed to a local hygienist to carry out.
Tell us your industry, number of workers, main processes and any earlier monitoring reports. We reply with a quote within one business day.
Request this plan — quote within one business dayTell us what your business does, your processes and any earlier monitoring reports. A Certified Industrial Hygienist replies within one business day.
Six documents in the plan
Word documents for the plan, guide, brief and notice; Excel registers for results and exposure standards. All files carry the _NSW suffix.
✓Industry editions pre-fill the exposure groups and agents for welding and fabrication, silica, woodworking, bakery and flour, and wastewater.
✓All files are Word or Excel, editable, and carry the _NSW suffix.
✓Authored to order for your site, not a fill-in-the-blanks template.
What this pack is
Under section 50 of the NSW Work Health and Safety Regulation 2025, a business must carry out air monitoring where it is not certain on reasonable grounds whether a contaminant exceeds its exposure standard, or where monitoring is needed to find out whether there is a risk to health. The results must be recorded, kept for 30 years and made readily accessible to the people who may be exposed. Noise has its own exposure standard in section 56 and its own testing duty in section 58.
The law sets the duty to monitor, not a named document. An Occupational Hygiene Monitoring Plan is how a business organises that duty: which work groups to sample, for which agents, by which method, how often, and what happens when a result comes back high. Without a plan, monitoring tends to be a one-off report that sits in a drawer.
This plan is authored and reviewed by a Certified Industrial Hygienist (CIH) for your site. OH Consultant does not do the on-site sampling. The plan tells you what to monitor and gives you a brief to hand to a local hygienist, so the sampling they do answers the questions your business actually has.
Occupational Hygiene Monitoring Plan – NSW
A core plan covering airborne contaminants and noise, with industry editions for welding and fabrication, silica, woodworking, bakery and flour, and wastewater.
- ✓Decision guide built on the s 50(1)(a) and (b) monitoring test
- ✓Similar exposure groups, sampling strategy and action levels
- ✓Exposure register kept for the 30 years s 50(2) requires
- ✓Hygienist engagement brief and report acceptance checklist
- ✓Authored and reviewed by a Certified Industrial Hygienist (CIH)
Tell us your industry, number of workers, main processes and any earlier monitoring reports. We reply with a quote within one business day.
Request this plan — quote within one business dayTell us what your business does, your processes and any earlier monitoring reports. A Certified Industrial Hygienist replies within one business day.
Exposures the plan is built to monitor
Version 1 covers airborne contaminants and noise, the two areas where the NSW regulation sets explicit monitoring and testing duties. Vibration, heat, radiation and biological agents can be added as an optional annex.
Silicosis and lung disease. Exposure standard 0.05 mg/m³ (8-hour TWA); exceedances in high-risk CSS processing must be reported to the regulator within 14 days under s 529CE.
Respiratory illness and metal-specific effects. The exposure standard for welding fumes (not otherwise classified) has been 1 mg/m³ since 18 January 2024.
Permanent hearing loss. Exposure standard LAeq,8h 85 dB(A) or LC,peak 140 dB(C) under s 56.
Health monitoring may be required under s 368, and for several of these Schedule 14 lists records of personal exposure as part of it.
Respiratory irritation, sensitisation and longer-term disease.
Occupational asthma and sensitisation.
Nervous system effects and irritation; isocyanate sensitisation in refinishing.
How the plan works in one workplace
A fabrication shop with 40 workers has six welders, four grinders and a spray booth. It had one fume report from several years ago and no noise assessment. The decision guide shows the business cannot be certain on reasonable grounds that welding fume is below 1 mg/m³, so s 50(1)(a) applies. The plan sets three exposure groups: welders, grinders and the painter. It specifies personal sampling for fume and a noise dosimetry survey, the number of samples per group, and the action to take at each result category. The business gives the hygienist brief to a local hygienist, logs the results in the register, posts the worker results notice, and books audiometric testing for workers who wear hearing protection to manage noise above the standard.
Why similar exposure groups matter
Sampling every worker is rarely practical. A similar exposure group is a set of workers who do the same tasks, with the same agents and controls, so their exposures can be expected to fall in the same range. Sampling a random selection from each group gives a defensible picture for everyone in it.
The plan sets the groups, the number of samples per group and how they are selected. Results are then assessed as a group, not one number at a time, which is how you tell a genuine low exposure from a lucky day.
From result to action
A result is only useful if it leads somewhere. The plan sorts results into categories, each with a defined response: keep the current controls and re-monitor on schedule, investigate and improve controls, or act immediately. Responses follow the hierarchy of control measures in s 36, so respiratory protection is not the first answer.
For silica in high-risk processing of crystalline silica substances, s 529CE adds a specific step: results above the standard go to the regulator within 14 days of the result being reported to the business. The plan writes that step into the response.
Linking air monitoring to health monitoring
Schedule 14 Table 14.1 lists chemicals for which health monitoring is required under s 368. For several of them, including benzene, cadmium, crystalline silica, creosote and vinyl chloride, records of personal exposure are part of the health monitoring itself. Your air monitoring data feeds directly into it.
The plan flags which agents trigger health monitoring, how results pass to the registered medical practitioner, and how noise results connect to audiometric testing under s 58. Air monitoring records and health records are kept apart, each for its own purpose.
How the plan works
Not generic advice — the specific, hierarchy-of-controls measures written into the pack, matched to how these assets actually fail.
Built for the people who do this work
If you operate, maintain or contract to these assets in NSW, this pack is written for your duties.
- ✓NSW businesses with roughly 10 to 200 workers and no in-house hygienist.
- ✓WHS coordinators and operations managers preparing for a SafeWork NSW visit.
- ✓Contractors facing client or council prequalification questions about exposure monitoring.
- ✓Businesses whose insurer has asked how airborne contaminants and noise are monitored.
- ✓Sites reviewing their exposure values before the WEL list takes effect on 1 December 2026.
Authored to the codes and the law
The Codes of Practice and Australian Standards these documents are measured against, and the legislation behind them.
- §Work Health and Safety Regulation 2025 (NSW) s 36 — hierarchy of control measures
- §s 49 and s 50 — exposure standards not exceeded; air monitoring, 30-year records and worker access
- §s 56, s 57 and s 58 — exposure standard for noise, managing hearing loss risk, audiometric testing
- §s 368 and s 378 — duty to provide health monitoring; health monitoring records
- §Schedule 14, Table 14.1 — hazardous chemicals requiring health monitoring
- §Chapter 8A, s 529CE — monitoring for high-risk processing of crystalline silica substances
- §AS/NZS 1269.1:2005, AS 2985:2009, AS 3640:2009, AS 2986.1:2003 and AS/NZS 1715:2009
Frequently asked questions
Plan your monitoring before the hygienist arrives
Tell us your processes, chemicals, roster and current controls. We write the plan for your site, and you hand the brief to a local hygienist to do the sampling.
Tell us your industry, number of workers, main processes and any earlier monitoring reports. We reply with a quote within one business day.
This plan helps a business organise its duties to monitor and manage exposure under the NSW Work Health and Safety Regulation 2025. It does not replace air monitoring, noise assessment or health monitoring carried out by competent people, and it is not a guarantee of compliance or of any audit outcome. OH Consultant does not carry out on-site sampling. Check exposure values against the current Safe Work Australia list before relying on them.