A Breath of Fresh Air: Standards Australia Achieves World-First in Overhaul of Respiratory Standards

In a world-first move, Standards Australia and Standards New Zealand have adopted the suite of International Organization for Standardization’s (ISO) 35+ international respiratory standards and will replace two outdated Australian standards*.  

This marks a major leap forward for the respiratory industry as the adopted standards modernise industry practices and provides a more comprehensive framework to help ensure that respiratory products are suitable, effective and tailored to real-world working conditions. The Australia and New Zealand-wide transition aims to provide guidance to manufacturers, regulators, workplaces, and other key stakeholders to enable them to choose products that protect workers who face hazards and risks from inhaling dust, gases and vapours, interacting with chemicals, fighting fires, and more.  

Recognising the scale of this change, Standards Australia is giving industry five years to adjust to this much needed change, with the Australian Standards set to be superseded on January 1, 2030.  

A shift towards human-centric protection

Standards Australia’s committee SF-010, Occupational Respiratory Protection, is leading the transition and is committed to guiding and notifying industry in the lead up to 2030. Commitee Chair Mark Reggers and committee member Jane Whitelaw explain that core to the adoption of these standards is a shift from focussing on product performance to creating a human-centric framework.

“The new suite of standards considers the end-user at the center of it all with the human centric approach, the work they are doing and what needs they will need to meet. For example, are you operating machinery in a dusty environment with other controls in place, or are you a firefighter on the front line who is breathing hard and fast in highly toxic environments? These are real world factors that new standards classification framework takes into consideration when selecting respiratory protection products” says Mr Reggers.

Dr Whitelaw reiterates, “This kind of consideration is important because, the harder you work, the more you need to breathe, which has a range of different impacts on various fronts, importantly the level of protection from contaminants you will need for that specific application and workload. You really need to have the wearer at the center of this, not just looking at the equipment specifications, which has been the predominant approach in our standards for many years.” 

The suite of standards provides details and a focus across respiratory protective products’:  

• Classification

• Terms and definitions  

• Performance, including general and for special applications, thread connection, and more.  

• Test methods, including particle penetration, breathing resistance, gas capacity, and more.  

• Human factors, including physiological limitations, respiratory flowrate, ergonomic factors, and more.

“Standards Australia is proud to be pioneering this change and is committed to supporting industry in manufacturing sustainable, safe, and wearer-centric products,” says Standards Australia Chief Operating Officer, Kareen Riley-Takos.  

SF-010 is committed to educating and notifying relevant groups throughout this transition and invites industry to attend an upcoming free webinar that will highlight important aspects of this change.  

The webinar will be hosted by Standards Australia and feature Mr Reggers and Dr Whitelaw. It will cover the differences between the Australian and ISO standards, and how these changes will shape the future of respiratory protection. It will also include a live Q&A.  

“We encourage stakeholders across industry to attend this webinar, because this transition brings with it a whole new classification framework. This information is particularly critical for manufacturers, accreditation bodies, and regulators. They need to think about what they're working on today and start to think about the plan to transition current existing products and guidance to workplaces,” says Mr Reggers.

“We are moving from two standards to over 30. We don’t want to overwhelm people, we want to support them and give them time to understand and implement the changes,” says Dr Whitelaw.

Webinar details

Name: Preparing for Australia’s new respiratory protection standards

Date: Wednesday 26 March 2025

Time: 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM AEDT

You can register to attend the webinar via this link.  

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*The two Australian standards are: AS/NZS 1715:2009 - Selection, use and maintenance of respiratory protective equipment and AS/NZS 1716:2012 - Respiratory Protective Devices.  

Learn more about the international standards here.