Falls from height remain the injury type with the worst outcomes on Victorian construction sites, and the exposure runs across scaffold, roof work, elevated platforms and unprotected edges. Alongside that sits struck-by risk from moving plant and crane lifts, which is why head protection and high-visibility clothing are treated as baseline rather than task-specific on most sites.

The exposure that gets underestimated is respirable crystalline silica. Cutting, grinding, drilling and demolishing concrete, brick and engineered stone generates fine dust that causes irreversible lung disease over time, with no symptoms in the years when the damage is happening.

Relevant gear: fall protection, head protection, hi-vis and workwear, respirators and masks.

The defining risk in a warehouse is people and powered mobile plant sharing the same floor. Forklift interactions account for a disproportionate share of serious incidents, and the controls that work are separation, visibility and predictable traffic flow. Line marking, barriers and bollards do more than any single item of PPE, with high-visibility clothing as the backstop when separation breaks down.

Day to day, the more frequent injuries are hand lacerations from strapping, banding, timber pallets and carton edges, plus foot injuries from dropped stock and wheeled equipment.

Relevant gear: hi-vis and workwear, cut-resistant gloves, foot protection, signs, barriers and site safety.

Eye injuries are the most frequent reportable injury on a fabrication floor. Grinding, cutting and machining throw swarf and fragments at speed, and the incidents happen during short tasks where someone judged the job too quick to bother.

Noise-induced hearing loss is the more serious long-term exposure, because it is painless, gradual and permanent. Where plant noise is continuous across a shift, protection needs to be worn for the whole shift to be worth anything. Welding and finishing work add fume and dust to the picture.

Relevant gear: eye protection, hearing protection, welding gloves, respirators and masks.

The risk workshops manage well is the visible one: hot components, pressurised fluids, spring-loaded assemblies. The risk they manage least well is skin exposure to oils, degreasers and solvents, because there is no immediate pain signal and the damage is cumulative. Contaminated hands also carry substances to the mouth during breaks, which is a route people rarely account for.

Disposable gloves are worth using here specifically because they are changed rather than washed and reused. Spray work, solvent vapour and brake servicing add a respiratory dimension that varies with ventilation.

Relevant gear: mechanics gloves, disposable gloves, eye protection, respirators and masks.

Knife work and slips on wet or greasy floors drive most of the injury count. Both are constant rather than occasional, which changes what suitable gear looks like: it has to be comfortable enough to be worn for a full shift, and it has to survive the hygiene regime.

That hygiene requirement rules out a lot of general-purpose equipment. Gloves need to be food-safe and readily replaced, and footwear needs a sole rated for wet and contaminated surfaces rather than general industrial use.

Relevant gear: cut-resistant gloves, disposable gloves, foot protection, sanitisers and dispensers.

Cleaning work concentrates chemical exposure into a small number of high-risk moments, and decanting concentrates is the main one. Splash to the eyes and prolonged skin contact are both realistic outcomes, and they usually happen away from any supervisor.

Ventilation is the second variable. Plant rooms, bathrooms, storage cupboards and confined spaces change how a product behaves compared to the same product used in an open area. Where concentrates are stored or decanted, a rinse point close to the task is worth planning for rather than retrofitting.

Relevant gear: chemical-resistant gloves, chemical splash goggles, emergency eyewash and showers, respirators and masks.

Sun exposure across a full working shift is the most under-recorded occupational exposure in outdoor work. It accumulates over a career, nobody logs it, and the consequences arrive decades later. Heat stress runs on a shorter clock and tends to be recognised only once someone is already unwell.

Spraying, grain dust and enclosed silo or shed work add respiratory exposure. Machinery noise is often dismissed because the work happens in the open air, but a tractor cab or a pump running over long hours produces the same cumulative hearing damage as a factory floor.

Relevant gear: sun protection, hydration, respirators and masks, hearing protection.