Legal Standards for Asbestos

A national ban on the importation, storage, supply, sale, installation or re-use of any product containing asbestos was introduced in December 2003. 

OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY REGULATIONS 2017 - Part 4.4 Asbestos

The new OHS regulations came into effect in Victoria on July 18, 2017.

The Regulations cover in situ asbestos, demolition and refurbishment. They also cover asbestos dust. They impose responsibilities and duties on employers, occupiers, self-employed people, designers, manufacturers, importers, suppliers and employees. In addition, the regulations cover a number of asbestos-related activities that are carried out in workplaces.

The Regulations ban the use of all forms of asbestos in all work processes (although there are a number of exemptions). Click here for a summary of the regulations.

There are two Compliance Codes for Asbestos which were approved by the Minister for Finance, Robin Scott, effective October 4, 2018. These were amended in December 2019:

• Managing asbestos in workplaces compliance code and 
• Removing asbestos in workplaces compliance code.

The Exposure Standard

The Exposure Standard sets out the time weighted average fibre concentration in the air breathed by a worker calculated over an eight hour working shift. It is now 0.1 fibre/millilitre of air for all forms of asbestos, in all circumstances.

Summary of Part 4.4 Asbestos of the Regulations

See also:

• WorkSafe topic webpage on Asbestos 

Last updated March 2020