In November 2025, the WorkSafeBC Board of Directors approved amendments to the Occupational Health and Safety Regulation (OHSR) and Prevention Manual relating to Combustible Dusts and Standards Updates.

Combustible Dusts

Part 6, Substance Specific Requirements, Combustible Dusts amendments will come into effect January 4, 2027. See the approved amendments with notes.

These amendments add comprehensive definitions of combustible dust risk and requirements for combustion risk assessment and testing.

They also define what dust is covered by the regulation:

• including workplaces where a potentially combustible dust is an input (raw material), product, byproduct, or waste of any work process; and
• excluding workplaces where there is no reasonably foreseeable risk of injury or death to a work from the combination of dusts, or where the dust is sealed in a commercial package.

Standards Updates

Parts 8 and 31, Standards Updates amendments will come into effect April 1, 2026. See the approved amendments with explanatory notes.

These amendments expand or update the related standards for personal protective clothing and equipment and firefighting in Parts 8 and 31 of the OHSR.

The changes relate specifically to:

• the use of helmets for bicycling or roller skating as a means of transport; and
• the selection, use, and care of respirators for protection against airborne contaminants in the workplace.