Abrasive blasting, powder coating and spray painting risk assessment (NSW)
Blasting dust and crystalline silica, breathing air quality, powder cloud explosion, curing ovens, isocyanates in two-pack coatings, flammable solvent vapour and airless spray injection – 40 hazards already identified and rated. Answer Yes, No or N/A and download the finished Word report.
Section D – Surface Preparation and Coating. 8 activities, 40 hazards, 152 controls.
Secure checkout via Stripe. Sign in and start as soon as the payment goes through.
Need more than one section? See the complete workshop
The 8 activities in this section
Every activity is assessed in three parts – General Safety (17 hazards), Fire and Explosion (6) and Occupational Hygiene (17). Untick any activity you do not carry out and it drops out of your assessment.
✓Access to the Section D online calculator, tied to the email address used at checkout. Untick any activity you do not carry out and it drops out of your checklist, results and report.
✓A finished Word report (.docx) with every hazard, your answers, the residual risk and your Action Plan already in it – to print, sign and keep with your safety records.
✓The pre-written Inherent Risk Assessment (.docx): every hazard in this section with what could go wrong, the possible consequence and its inherent risk rating – your reference copy, to read before the walk and share with the people you consult.
✓A printable Word walkthrough checklist for marking by hand on the workshop floor, an illustrated Quick Start Guide (PDF) and a one-page calculator login sheet.
What this pack is
Surface preparation introduces severe respiratory and explosive liabilities. This section digitises the CIH methodology required to safely manage abrasive blasting, industrial coatings and curing environments without relying on guesswork.
Surface preparation and coating concentrates the workshop’s worst chronic health risks and its worst fire risks in one area. Abrasive blasting generates respirable dust and heavy metals and depends on clean breathing air in the helmet. Two-pack polyurethane and epoxy coatings contain isocyanates and amines that cause permanent asthma. Powder and solvent vapour both explode.
This section follows the coating line from start to finish: abrasive blast cleaning, chemical pre-treatment (degreasing, phosphating or zirconium), masking and jigging, powder coating application, curing oven operation, wet specialist coatings, spray booth cleaning and filter changes, and coating inspection including holiday and spark testing.
It is as relevant to a general blasting and painting contractor or powder coater as it is to a tank manufacturer.
Section D – Surface Preparation and Coating
Workplace risk assessment for a bolted steel tank manufacturing workshop in New South Wales, Section D: Surface Preparation and Coating: 8 activities, 40 hazards and 152 controls covering isocyanate sensitisers, flammable solvents, abrasive blasting dusts and VOCs. Completed in the online calculator, which works out control scores, residual risk and a prioritised Action Plan and produces a finished Word report to print and sign. Includes a printable walkthrough checklist and a Quick Start Guide.
- ✓40 hazards across 8 activities, each with its consequences and inherent risk already rated
- ✓152 controls listed for you, ranked by the hierarchy of control – you answer Yes, No or N/A
- ✓Colour-coded residual risk and a prioritised Action Plan, worked out for you
- ✓A finished Word report to print and sign
- ✓The pre-written Inherent Risk Assessment in Word, a blank walkthrough checklist, an illustrated Quick Start Guide and a calculator login sheet
Section D – Surface Preparation and Coating. 8 activities, 40 hazards, 152 controls.
Secure checkout via Stripe. Sign in and start as soon as the payment goes through.
Need more than one section? See the complete workshop
The most serious hazards in surface preparation and coating
A sample of the 40 hazards in this section, each shown with its consequence and the inherent risk rating given by a Certified Industrial Hygienist before any controls are counted. The controls themselves are in the calculator.
Crystalline silica causes silicosis and lung cancer (IARC Group 1); lead causes neurological, kidney and reproductive harm; chromates are carcinogens. Occupational Hygiene · inherent risk 4C.
Severe injection injuries, eye injury, struck by whipping hose. General Safety · inherent risk 4C.
Entanglement, crush. General Safety · inherent risk 4C.
Carbon monoxide poisoning, fatality. General Safety · inherent risk 4B.
Heat injury, entrapment, fatality. General Safety · inherent risk 4B.
Dust explosion or flash fire; burns; major plant damage. Fire and Explosion · inherent risk 4B.
Explosion, fire, fatality; major plant damage. Fire and Explosion · inherent risk 4B.
Short-term high exposure to sensitising powders, isocyanate residues and metals. Occupational Hygiene · inherent risk 3D.
Heat exhaustion, heat stroke (potentially fatal); sunburn and skin cancer (solar UV is IARC Group 1). Occupational Hygiene · inherent risk 3C.
How one hazard is rated
Hazard D1.3 – Blasting dust – crystalline silica and metals – starts with an inherent risk of 4C, rated before any controls are counted. The calculator lists 5 controls for it, from elimination and engineering down to PPE, monitoring and emergency arrangements. You answer Yes, No or N/A for each on the floor. Once the last one is answered, the calculator works out the control score, applies any severity reduction earned by physical controls, and shows the residual risk as RED, YELLOW or GREEN. Every control you answered No to goes into your Action Plan, most urgent and most effective first, ready for a responsible person and a due date.
How your controls are scored
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.
- ✓Workshops with a blast room, blast cabinet or open blasting yard
- ✓Powder coaters running spray booths and gas or electric curing ovens
- ✓Sites spraying two-pack epoxy, polyurethane or other isocyanate coatings
- ✓Businesses with chemical pre-treatment tanks or wash bays
- ✓Owners who need a spray painting and abrasive blasting risk assessment that covers health monitoring and fire and explosion risk
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 Act 2011 (NSW)
- §Work Health and Safety Regulation 2025 (NSW)
- §SafeWork NSW Code of Practice: How to manage work health and safety risks
Frequently asked questions
Add an in-house CIH risk assessment review
Complete your risk assessment using our digital engine, then have our in-house Certified Industrial Hygienist (CIH) and Full Member of the Australian Institute of Occupational Hygienists (MAIOH) review your specific results to ensure bulletproof compliance.
Post-completion expert review
Not sure if you categorised your site’s controls correctly? Complete your online assessment and send us the generated report. Our in-house experts will review your residual risk scores, validate your “N/A” selections, and ensure your action plan adequately addresses your highest liabilities (like hexavalent chromium or LEL environments) before you sign off.
- Scope
- Remote CIH and MAIOH review of your completed calculator report and hazard register.
- Turnaround
- 3–5 business days.
- Pricing
- Remote review is billed at an hourly rate of $250 AUD/hour (total quote based on the number of sections reviewed).
Walk it, answer it, sign it.
The calculator generates a finalised, fully formatted .docx record with your Action Plan already inside it. Print it, sign it off, and you are audit-ready for this part of your workshop.
Price includes GST · Jurisdiction: New South Wales – WHS Act 2011, WHS Regulation 2025 and SafeWork NSW Codes of Practice applied
This is a generic risk assessment for a typical workshop, to support your due diligence – completing it is not compliance in itself. You must answer it for your own site, consult your workers, put the missing controls in place, and get competent advice where it says so – for example exposure monitoring by an occupational hygienist. The limits of the assessment are set out in “How it works” and at the front of every report.