Specialist silica risk control consulting across Western Australia. Silica Risk Control Plans (SRCP), risk assessments, SWMS integration, and on-site implementation built for the way your business actually operates — not just to satisfy a regulator.
Respirable Crystalline Silica (RCS) is a fine, invisible dust generated when materials containing silica are cut, ground, drilled, polished, crushed, or disturbed. Stone, sand, concrete, brick, mortar, tile, engineered stone, and many natural rock formations all contain crystalline silica.
Particles small enough to be inhaled — under 4 microns — bypass the body's natural defences and lodge deep in the lungs. Over time, this exposure can cause silicosis, lung cancer, COPD, kidney disease, and autoimmune conditions. There is no cure for silicosis once lung scarring has occurred.
Western Australian businesses with workers exposed to crystalline silica substances must identify the hazard, assess the risk, implement controls, and verify those controls work. Where the work is high-risk processing of crystalline silica, a formal Silica Risk Control Plan — or a compliant SWMS for high-risk construction work — must be prepared and accessible to workers before work begins.
Under the Work Health and Safety (General) Regulations 2022 (WA), a Person Conducting a Business or Undertaking (PCBU) must manage risks to health and safety associated with respirable crystalline silica at the workplace.
Where the work involves high-risk processing of crystalline silica substances, the duty escalates: a written Silica Risk Control Plan must be prepared, available to workers, and reviewed regularly.
Construction work involving silica may also fall under the high-risk construction work provisions, requiring an integrated SWMS that addresses silica controls before work starts on site.
→ Talk to Rob About Your ObligationsYou must identify any task or material that generates RCS and assess the level of risk. This includes cutting, grinding, drilling, polishing, crushing and similar dust-generating activities.
Apply the hierarchy of control. Where elimination isn't reasonably practicable, controls must minimise exposure as far as reasonably practicable — engineering, administrative, and PPE in that order.
For high-risk processing, prepare a written Silica Risk Control Plan covering the work, hazards, controls, training, monitoring and review. Make it accessible to workers.
Conduct air monitoring to verify controls are working, provide health surveillance where required, and review the plan whenever conditions, materials, or controls change.
Mapping every task, material, location and worker group where RCS may be generated. Captured in plain language your team understands.
A structured assessment of exposure likelihood, frequency, duration, and severity — reasoned, defensible, and tied to the work as it's actually done.
Engineering, administrative and PPE controls applied through the hierarchy — water suppression, LEV, enclosures, isolation, RPE selection and fit testing.
Where the work is high-risk construction, we integrate silica controls into your SWMS so the document is consolidated, practical, and audit-ready.
Toolbox sessions and structured training covering hazards, controls, RPE use, hygiene, and what workers must do if controls fail. Records included.
Coordination of personal and static air monitoring through occupational hygienists. We translate the results into actionable changes — not just a number on a page.
Coordination of statutory health surveillance for workers carrying out high-risk processing — baseline, periodic, and exit examinations as required.
RESP-FIT accredited quantitative (CNC) and qualitative (ATT) fit testing — making sure the RPE in your control plan actually seals on every face wearing it.
A built-in review schedule, change-trigger criteria, and a clear path for updating the plan when work, materials, or controls evolve over time.
Under WA WHS regulations, controls must be applied in order — eliminating the hazard first, before relying on lower-order controls like PPE. Most non-compliant silica plans we see invert this order. Ours don't.
Remove the hazard entirely. Specify silica-free materials, alter the design, or eliminate the dust-generating process where reasonably practicable.
Replace the silica-containing material with a lower-risk alternative — for example, low-silica engineered stone or non-silica abrasives.
Water suppression, on-tool LEV (local exhaust ventilation), enclosed cabins with HEPA filtration, automated cutting, and dust-extraction at source.
Job rotation, exclusion zones, signage, training, hygiene protocols, decontamination procedures, and shift scheduling to reduce exposure duration.
Properly selected and fit-tested respirators (P2/P3, half-face, full-face or PAPR). PPE is never a substitute for higher-order controls — it supplements them.
Rob Winchester has personally led safety on demolition, civil, mining and resources projects across Western Australia. Every silica plan we develop is grounded in that hands-on industry knowledge.
Hard-rock, lithium, iron ore, mineral sands, quarry operations
Commercial, civil, residential, infrastructure builds
Concrete cutting, structural demolition, controlled collapse
Fabrication, installation, polishing, dry-cutting compliance
Earthworks, road construction, drainage, bridges
Manufacturing, cutting, dry-grinding operations
Pipeline, treatment plants, tunnelling and trenching
Stone cutting, paving, hardscaping, masonry work
A typical Winchester silica engagement runs to a clear five-stage process. Timelines vary by site complexity — most plans are scoped and delivered within two to four weeks.
Free initial call to understand your business, your work, and the regulatory pressure points you're facing.
On-site assessment of tasks, materials, existing controls, RPE in use, and worker exposure scenarios.
Drafting of the Silica Risk Control Plan, integration with SWMS, and review with key stakeholders.
Toolbox training, supervisor coaching, fit testing, and hands-on rollout — making sure the plan lives on site.
Scheduled reviews, audit support, and ongoing advice as the work, materials, or regulations evolve.
Silica controls don't fail because the hazard is unknown. They fail because the plan was written for an auditor — and never for the worker holding the grinder.Rob Winchester — Winchester WHS Consultants
Talk to Rob Winchester directly. Free initial consultation, fixed-fee scope, and a plan that holds up on site and at audit.
Specialist silica risk control consultant. RESP-FIT accredited fit tester. ICAM-trained investigator. Based in Perth, servicing all of Western Australia.