Do clothing factories need occupational hygiene assessments?

Yes. Typical needs are a noise survey, an illumination survey for sewing and inspection work, a dust assessment and an ergonomics assessment for repetitive work.

Who monitors contractors working inside the steel plant?

Each contractor, as the employer, must assess and monitor its own employees' exposure to fume, noise and heat. The plant's surveys do not cover a contractor's workforce.

Is heat stress assessed near furnaces and casting?

Yes. The Physical Agents Regulations, 2024 require heat to be assessed wherever it may affect employees.

OCCUPATIONAL HYGIENE IN NEWCASTLE

Newcastle is northern KwaZulu-Natal's industrial centre, built around an integrated steel plant and a large clothing and textile industry, with chemical manufacturing and coal mining in the surrounding district.

Qualitas carries out occupational hygiene surveys for these employers: metal fume and dust monitoring, noise surveys, chemical monitoring, heat stress surveys and ergonomics assessments.

REACH OUT

Worker cutting steel with an angle grinder as sparks fly

WHERE WE WORK AROUND NEWCASTLE

Newcastle

Madadeni

Osizweni

Dannhauser

Utrecht

Ladysmith

Steel production and the contractors who maintain it: iron oxide and manganese fume, dust, radiant heat and noise.

Clothing and textile factories in Newcastle and Madadeni: cotton and fibre dust, noise from machines, lighting and repetitive work.

Chemical and rubber manufacturing: solvents, process chemicals and LEV.

Coal mining around Dannhauser and Utrecht. Qualitas carries out occupational hygiene assessments on mines under the Mine Health and Safety Act (29 of 1996), and can hold the section 12(1) occupational hygiene appointment for surface operations.

Engineering and fabrication workshops: welding fume and noise.

THE HAZARDS WE MEASURE HERE

Metal fume and dust from steelmaking and welding, heat near furnaces, textile dust, noise from mills and sewing floors, solvents and process chemicals, and poor lighting and posture in clothing factories.

Interior of a large industrial warehouse with overhead cranes

INDUSTRIES WE SERVE

Foundry workers in protective gear pouring molten metal

WHY QUALITAS

Qualitas Occupational Consulting is a Department of Employment and Labour Approved Inspection Authority (AIA) and a SANAS-accredited (ISO/IEC 17020) inspection body for asbestos, lead, noise and hazardous chemical agents, and applies the same quality system to all its assessments.

Every assessment is led by Christo de Wet, an occupational hygienist registered with the Southern African Institute for Occupational Hygiene (SAIOH), with 15 years of experience.

We work nationwide, and Qualitas has also carried out assessments in Botswana and Kazakhstan. Travel is quoted upfront.

You receive a professional, audit-ready report that stands up to inspection by the Department of Employment and Labour.