Many workplaces regularly report injury statistics. Exposure data can receive less attention.

The theme of National Safe Work Month 2026 is Safe work is for life, highlighting the importance of protecting long-term health as well as preventing immediate injury.

One practical place to start is with what an organisation measures, reports and discusses.

What gets measured gets attention

Workplaces use a range of safety measures in board reports, site meetings and monthly dashboards.

These measures influence where attention is focused. When leaders regularly review a particular measure, it becomes part of how safety performance is understood and managed.

Common measures include lost time injuries, recordable injuries and days since the last incident. These are useful measures, but they primarily record events and outcomes that have already occurred.

Exposure monitoring provides another view: what workers may be exposed to while the work is taking place.

Looking beyond immediate injury

In 2024, 188 workers in Australia died from traumatic injuries at work, according to Safe Work Australia.

Occupational disease develops differently. Cancer Council Australia estimates that workplace exposure to carcinogens causes more than 5,000 new cancer cases in Australia each year, with silica dust, diesel exhaust and welding fumes among the recognised causes.

These figures measure different outcomes and should not be directly compared. Together, they show why WHS needs to consider both immediate incidents and longer-term exposure.

Some hazards are difficult to detect without monitoring

Many airborne hazards cannot be identified reliably through sight or smell.

In Principles of Occupational Health and Hygiene (4th edition, CRC Press, 2025), AES CEO Aleks Todorovic and co-author Dr. Michael Logan note that gases and vapours are mostly invisible, and that odour is not a reliable measure of harmful conditions or toxicity.

Without measurement, personal worker exposures may be harder to recognise or discuss. Likewise, monitoring provides data that can be used to assess conditions, review controls and make more informed decisions.

Making exposure visible

Exposure information is more useful when it becomes part of routine WHS discussions rather than remaining within a technical report.

In practice, this can include:

Sharing monitoring results with workers. Giving people information about the conditions associated with their work can support better conversations about hazards and controls.
Include exposure monitoring in regular safety discussions. Toolbox talks and site meetings can review anonymised or aggregate monitoring results alongside incidents and other safety measures.
Tracking leading measures. This may include how many tasks have been assessed, when controls were last reviewed and how quickly monitoring findings were addressed.
Looking at exposure across the shift. Average results can mask shorter periods of higher exposure. Reviewing when and where exposure changes can provide useful context.

Personal monitoring technology can also give workers and safety teams access to readings while work is taking place.

These readings can support decisions on site, but they do not replace formal exposure assessment against workplace exposure limits where this is required.

Where the national strategy is heading

The Australian Work Health and Safety Strategy 2023–2033 includes occupational disease alongside workplace injury.

Its targets include a 20% reduction in the frequency rate of work-related respiratory disease and no new cases of accelerated silicosis by 2033.

Meeting these objectives requires workplaces to understand exposure as well as injury outcomes, and to use that information when reviewing controls.

Safe work is for life

Safety culture is influenced by what leaders ask about, what teams review and what workers can see.

Including exposure alongside traditional safety measures gives organisations a broader view of workplace health and the effectiveness of their controls.

This National Safe Work Month, a useful question for workplaces is:

How do you know your controls are working?