Concurrent session 6: Occupational Hygiene & Exposure Management
Tracks
Track 3
| Tuesday, August 18, 2026 |
| 3:05 PM - 4:30 PM |
| Surfers Paradise room |
Speaker
Mr Dustin Bennett
Principal Hygienist
Gcg Health Safety & Hygiene
Exceedance investigations, where to from here?
Abstract
RSHQ’s implementation of RS14 (coal) and QGL02 (MMQ) approximately a decade ago established formal expectations for exceedance investigations following elevated personal exposure monitoring results. In response, mining operations adapted existing incident investigation methodologies to include occupational exposures, with many sites still operating within these largely reactionary frameworks today.
While this represented a significant advancement, the absence of fit-for-purpose training, templates and exposure-specific investigative guidance has resulted in variable approaches across industry in terms of depth, consistency and technical rigour.
Exposure investigations also present challenges distinct from traditional safety investigations. Limited contextual information, delayed laboratory results and compressed turnaround expectations can contribute to superficial investigations that overemphasise behavioural factors, administrative controls and respiratory protective equipment.
Despite this, mine sites now hold exposure monitoring datasets capable of supporting a more structured and proactive investigative approach.
This presentation explores how utilising historical exposure data, exposure profiling and task-level exposure assessment information can be integrated into existing investigation workflows to improve quality and decision-making. Practical implementation approaches are discussed, including development of site-specific exposure profiles, task-based “job dictionaries”, and integration of indicative real-time monitoring tools to better contextualise exposure events.
The intent is not to replace existing regulatory requirements, but to support the evolution of exposure investigations from reactive compliance activities toward more data-informed occupational health risk management practice.
While this represented a significant advancement, the absence of fit-for-purpose training, templates and exposure-specific investigative guidance has resulted in variable approaches across industry in terms of depth, consistency and technical rigour.
Exposure investigations also present challenges distinct from traditional safety investigations. Limited contextual information, delayed laboratory results and compressed turnaround expectations can contribute to superficial investigations that overemphasise behavioural factors, administrative controls and respiratory protective equipment.
Despite this, mine sites now hold exposure monitoring datasets capable of supporting a more structured and proactive investigative approach.
This presentation explores how utilising historical exposure data, exposure profiling and task-level exposure assessment information can be integrated into existing investigation workflows to improve quality and decision-making. Practical implementation approaches are discussed, including development of site-specific exposure profiles, task-based “job dictionaries”, and integration of indicative real-time monitoring tools to better contextualise exposure events.
The intent is not to replace existing regulatory requirements, but to support the evolution of exposure investigations from reactive compliance activities toward more data-informed occupational health risk management practice.
Biography
Dusty is a Principal Hygienist for GCG, Australia’s largest provider of Occupational Hygiene services. Dusty is a Certified Occupational Hygienist (COH) as well as a Fellow (FAIOH) of the Australian Institute of Occupational Hygienists (AIOH). With over 20 years experience in the QLD mining sector, Dusty is highly respected in the assessment and control of worker exposures.
Mr Ryan Brogden
Director
Frontier Safety
Catastrophic incidents involving ammonium nitrate: what have we learned and what can we still learn?
Abstract
The understanding of risk relating to blasting explosives, including ammonium nitrate (AN) and ammonium nitrate emulsion (ANE), changed in 2014 following the AN transport explosion in Queensland. In 2022 there was again a shift in the risk landscape with the ANE tanker explosion in Western Australia, followed by another ANE tanker explosion in Queensland in 2024. In the immediate aftermath of each of these catastrophic explosions, questions are raised by the community and industry. However, once the findings of the detailed regulatory investigations are released, the relevance of these incidents has often been lost to the broader community.
Within the explosives regulators, local communities affected, manufacturers, transporters and users, these incidents remain current and ongoing. This presentation aims to highlight the key learnings from these transport incidents, and other major storage incidents involving ammonium nitrate globally including Tianjin, Beirut and West Texas.
This presentation will cast back to the key learnings from these major incident investigations involving AN products, and help unlock the understanding of AN, while casting forward to what the future could look like with the advancement of knowledge and technology to improve the safety of blasting for the industry and the community globally.
Within Australia, an independent research group is being developed with the aim to inform on the safe storage, transportation and use of AN and ANE. The plans for the direction of this research group will be shared to give industry an insight on where Australia is leading the way in making explosives safety a key focus for the mining industry.
Within the explosives regulators, local communities affected, manufacturers, transporters and users, these incidents remain current and ongoing. This presentation aims to highlight the key learnings from these transport incidents, and other major storage incidents involving ammonium nitrate globally including Tianjin, Beirut and West Texas.
This presentation will cast back to the key learnings from these major incident investigations involving AN products, and help unlock the understanding of AN, while casting forward to what the future could look like with the advancement of knowledge and technology to improve the safety of blasting for the industry and the community globally.
Within Australia, an independent research group is being developed with the aim to inform on the safe storage, transportation and use of AN and ANE. The plans for the direction of this research group will be shared to give industry an insight on where Australia is leading the way in making explosives safety a key focus for the mining industry.
Biography
Ryan is owner and Director of Frontier Safety Pty Ltd, an independent consultancy operating mainly within the Australasian market, with a focus on safety and security compliance, regulatory approvals, risk management, auditing and incident investigation. The consulting services include hazardous chemicals, dangerous goods, major hazard facilities, explosives and ammonium nitrate substances (AN). He is currently Past-President of the International Society of Explosives Engineers (ISEE) Australian Professional Chapter Inc. (volunteer role) that represents and advocates for the Australian Drill and Blast industry.
Ryan has a Degree in Chemistry (First Class Honours) and a Graduate Diploma in Forensic Science. His career began with research to chemically fingerprint explosives, ammunition powders and AN. This led to government agency roles over the next 11 years regulating dangerous goods, explosives and AN in both Western Australia and Queensland. Following this, Ryan embarked on an industry role for 4 years as Manager Safety, Security and Compliance for a new explosives manufacturing entrant into the Australasian market.
Ryan was lead investigator (DNRME, now RSHQ) into the Angellala Creek AN vehicle explosion that occurred in Queensland in 2014. He won the Paper of the Year Award at the 44th ISEE Conference in the USA for his paper on the investigation. In 2023, he was engaged by the WA Regulator (DEMIRS, now LGIRS) for technical peer review of the AN emulsion (ANE) transport tanker explosion report prior to publication by the regulator.
Ryan has been involved with explosives, AN and dangerous goods for over 20 years relating to technical, safety, security, policy and regulatory advisory.
