Welcome, and how this works
Jump around freely. Use Contents at the top right to revisit any section at any time, including after the assessment.
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This course takes about 35 minutes. You can stop at any point and pick up where you left off.
It is for anyone who works around running diesel engines, especially where the air does not move freely: underground mining, tunnelling, workshops, loading docks, cold stores, warehouses, truck and bus depots, plant yards and enclosed construction.
The thing to understand first
The smell is not the hazard. The particles are, and they are far too small to see. An area where the exhaust smell has faded can still be carrying a substantial particle load.
That inverted relationship is what makes this hazard easy to underestimate. People manage the smell, ventilate until it clears and conclude the problem has gone.
What it covers
- What diesel particulate matter is, and why the particle size matters so much
- What the evidence says about health, including the cancer classification
- Where exposure is highest, which is not always where you would expect
- How it is measured, and the honest position on exposure standards in Australia
- The controls that work, with ventilation and maintenance getting the most space
- What you can do yourself, and who is responsible for the rest
What it is not
General information for Australia, not legal advice and not a substitute for your site’s ventilation plan, exposure monitoring or diesel management system. It does not make you competent to design ventilation or interpret monitoring results.