Do hospitals in Limpopo need a hazardous biological agents assessment?

Yes. The Regulations for Hazardous Biological Agents, 2022 require every employer whose employees may be exposed to biological agents, including in healthcare, to assess the risk and review it at least every two years.

Our grain silos are fumigated. Is that a hygiene issue?

Yes. Fumigants such as phosphine are highly toxic hazardous chemical agents. The risk assessment must cover fumigation, ventilation and re-entry, and monitoring may be needed for staff who work near fumigated stores.

Is heat stress assessed in workshops as well as outdoors?

Yes. Hot workshops and metal processing can create heat stress even under a roof. The Physical Agents Regulations, 2024 apply wherever heat may affect employees.

OCCUPATIONAL HYGIENE IN POLOKWANE

Polokwane is Limpopo's capital and its main service centre for the platinum, chrome and coal mines to the south and east, with a platinum smelter on its outskirts, food processing, provincial hospitals and the N1 logistics corridor to Zimbabwe.

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

REACH OUT

Worker cutting steel with an angle grinder as sparks fly

WHERE WE WORK AROUND POLOKWANE

Polokwane and Ladanna

Seshego

Mankweng

Mokopane

Lebowakgomo

Tzaneen

Mining suppliers and contractors in Polokwane and Seshego industrial areas: engineering, rebuild and hydraulic workshops with welding fume, solvents and noise.

Smelting and metal processing: metal fume, sulphur dioxide, heat and noise. On mining rights, Qualitas carries out occupational hygiene assessments under the Mine Health and Safety Act (29 of 1996) and can hold the section 12(1) appointment for surface operations.

Food and beverage processing, abattoirs and grain storage: noise, cold rooms, biological agents and fumigants.

Provincial hospitals and clinics: hazardous biological agents, laboratory chemicals and ergonomics.

Transport and logistics on the N1: diesel exhaust, noise, vibration and manual handling.

THE HAZARDS WE MEASURE HERE

Heat in Limpopo summers, welding fume and solvents in workshops, metal fume and sulphur dioxide around smelting, grain dust and fumigants, noise, and biological agents in healthcare and meat processing.

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.