New workplace exposure limits from 1 December 2026: a plain guide for dry cleaners

In short. From 1 December 2026, Safe Work Australia’s Workplace Exposure Limits (WEL) replace the Workplace Exposure Standards for airborne contaminants. If your plant runs on a solvent, whether perchloroethylene (perc) or a hydrocarbon, look up its entry on the new list and check your controls against it. This is a plain summary, not legal advice. Your state’s work health and safety regulator has the final word.

What changes on 1 December 2026

For years, the limits on how much of a chemical a worker may breathe in were set out in the Workplace Exposure Standards. From 1 December 2026 that list is replaced by a new one, the Workplace Exposure Limits. The current standards apply until 30 November 2026.

Some states allow more time for a short list of substances: WorkSafe Victoria and WorkSafe Queensland both list 15 substances with a transition to 2029. Chemicals treated as non-threshold genotoxic carcinogens get no WEL figure at all from 1 December 2026. If your solvent is in either group, ask your regulator what that means for you.

The shape of the duty doesn’t change. No worker should breathe in more than the limit, and where you are not sure, the air is measured.

Check your solvent’s entry yourself

We are not printing a number here, on purpose. Find tetrachloroethylene (perc), or the hydrocarbon solvent your machine uses, on Safe Work Australia’s list, and read its entry as it stands on the day you check. Your solvent supplier’s safety data sheet should move to the new figure too. If the sheet on your wall still quotes the old standard, ask the supplier for a current one.

Then look at your controls. Check the machine’s door seals and still, how the room is ventilated, where staff stand when a load comes out, and how solvent is stored and topped up. A service is often the quickest fix. We service dry cleaning machines as well as wet cleaning ones, so call us if you would like yours checked.

Perc already comes with other duties

The NSW Environment Protection Authority describes perc as a suspected cancer-causing chemical. It sets out how perc and dry cleaning waste must be stored, handled and disposed of, with penalties for illegal disposal. Safe Work Australia has also published health monitoring guidance for tetrachloroethylene.

What regulators overseas have done

These are not Australian rules, but they show where things are heading:

United States. In December 2024 the US Environmental Protection Agency set a 10-year phase-out of perc in dry cleaning. Perc was barred from newly acquired machines after six months, and older machine types go first. The rule has since been opened for reconsideration.
California. Perc dry cleaning machines had to be out of service by 1 January 2023.

As at November 2026 we are not aware of any ban on perc for dry cleaning in Australia.

Where water fits

Wet cleaning grew out of the same questions. Kreussler, the German maker of LANADOL, went looking for an alternative to chlorinated solvents after the concern about perc in the late 1980s. It first showed the LANADOL wet cleaning process to the trade on 3 December 1991. The process uses water and biodegradable detergents. In Kreussler’s words, that means no solvent and no VOC emissions.

It doesn’t have to be all or nothing. A plant can keep its solvent machine and move garments across to water one group at a time, starting with the ones that suit water best.

First steps for a plant

A washer that can be programmed for wet cleaning. Often it is the one you already have.
A dryer with selectable temperature and time.
Finishing equipment: a form finisher, a trouser topper and a pressing table.
LANADOL chemistry, dosed automatically.

Adding wet cleaning to your dry cleaning plant goes through it in detail. Start wet cleaning is where to ask us to look at your machines.

Where to check

Questions? Call 1300 70 69 70 or contact us.