About

Services

Silica Risk Management & Advice

As an occupational hygienist specialising in silica dust control, I help businesses safeguard their workplaces. I assess and identify risks associated with silica dust exposure, developing tailored control strategies. My services include health risk assessment, advice on implementing effective engineering controls, advising on the use of personal protective equipment, air monitoring, and other important elements of silica dust control.

Corporate Health & Safety Governance & Programs

For every fatality in Australia due to a safety incident at work, more than 8 workers are killed from a health-related disease. If your health and safety program is really only about ‘safety’, then you’re missing at least half of the equation!

Risk Management

Effective health and safety risk management means that ‘health’ is managed in the same way as ‘safety’. But how do you do that when health hazards may not be immediately obvious? We can break that down for you to ensure you have an effective risk management program.

Certified Occupational Hygienist (COH)

Dusts, mists, fumes and heavy metals are just the start of what workers encounter across worksites in Australia. A Certified Occupational Hygienist (COH) is the highest professional standard in the country to protect workers from illness and disease.

Expert Opinion (Expert Witness)

Often called upon as an expert witness due to working extensively as an occupational hygienist protecting workers from illnesses and diseases such as silicosis.

Speaker

Whether it’s a worksite, a workshop, a keynote or an Executive Boardroom, speaking in a way that both inspires and de-mystifies the science and cuts through to the real issues is what it’s all about.

 

Kate Cole OAM is an engineer and scientist working to protect the health of workers across some of Australia’s most iconic infrastructure projects. For her service to workplace health and safety, Kate was awarded a Medal (OAM) of the Order of Australia and included in the Covid-19 Honour Roll in the 2022 Australia Day Honours.

After 20+ years working in the industry, she started Cole Health as an independent consultancy. Kate works with organisations to help them prevent illness and fatality across high-risk sectors including infrastructure (construction, tunnelling, demolition) and contaminated land remediation.

A multiple award-winning scientist & engineer, Kate has a key focus on the control of respirable crystalline silica (also known as ‘silica dust’) informed through the completion of a Winston Churchill Fellowship and her work across major construction and tunnelling projects both in Australia and internationally.

Kate is often called upon as an expert witness as an occupational hygienist due to her knowledge and experience in protecting workers from illnesses and diseases such as silicosis.

By creating streamlined processes that help business protect their workers, her work has positively impacted the infrastructure sector through increasing the focus on the “health” in “health and safety” and has resulted in the improved control of silica dust across the construction, tunnelling, and demolition workforce.

Named as one of the Top 100 Women of Influence by the Australian Financial Review and one of Science & Technology Australia’s Superstars of STEM, Kate is a passionate advocate for preserving the health of workers across Australia.

Kate has been supporting the COVID-19 pandemic through providing specialist expertise on respiratory protection, ventilation, and health and safety more broadly.

Kate is a Past President of the Australian Institute of Occupational Hygienists and is on / has supported, the following committees and panels:

  • NSW Dust Diseases Board

  • OzSAGE member

  • National Silicosis Prevention Strategy Expert Steering Committee, Co-Chair

  • SafeWork NSW Advisory Committee member, NSW Code of Practice Tunnels Under Construction

  • Professional Advisory Board member, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, UTS

  • National COVID-19 Clinical Evidence Taskforce Infection Prevention & Control Panel

  • Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care National Clinical Taskforce

  • DHHS Victoria Infection Prevention Mechanisms Subgroup

  • SafeWork NSW Infrastructure Silica Working Party

  • University of Wollongong Work Health & Safety Academic Program Industry Reference Group

Kate holds the following qualifications:

  • AICD Company Directors Course

  • Fellow Member of the Australian Institute of Occupational Hygienists (FAIOH)

  • Certified Occupational Hygienist (COH)

  • Rail Industry Worker

  • Bachelor of Science (Biotechnology)

  • Master of Environmental Engineering Management

  • Master of Science in Occupational Hygiene Practice

Honours & Awards

 

2022 Australia Day Honours

Awarded a Medal (OAM) of the Order of Australia and included in the Covid-19 Honour Roll in the 2022 Australia Day Honours.

Sydney Metro “Game Changer” Award | 2019

Awarded to a Sydney Metro team member who has developed innovative, cutting edge outcomes or solutions that created value for Sydney Metro improvements; made a positive difference to our people, industry, future projects, or the community; and demonstrated innovative ways to solve a problem or challenge.

AIOH 3M Australia Best Scientific Paper | 2019

Awarded at the 2019 Australian Institute of Occupational Hygienists (AIOH) Conference for the paper entitled, “Controlling Exposure to Respirable Crystalline Silica in Sydney Demolition Workers: A Client-led Intervention”

International Tunnelling Association (ITA) Awards Winner | Safety Initiative of the Year | 2019

Recognised for the impact of the work produced by the Air Quality Working Group.

SafeWork NSW Awards Winner | Most Significant Contribution to Workplace Health

In her role working on Sydney Metro, Kate Cole authored and developed the construction industry’s first occupational health, hygiene and wellbeing standard. The standard is now embedded into all of their major contracts as a contractual condition. It safeguards the health of thousands of Sydney Metro workers, and has led to improvements in how the construction industry manages significant risk, particularly relating to silica dust.

Science & Technology Australia | Superstar of STEM

One of the 2018/19 cohort of the “Superstars of STEM”

Australian Financial Review Top 100 Women of Influence

Named in 2018 under the category of “Board and Management”

Winston Churchill Fellow

Awarded a Winston Churchill Fellowship in 2016 to investigate best practice to prevent illness and disease in tunnel construction workers.

American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA) | Future Leaders Institute

Awarded a place to attend the AIHA Future Leaders Institute in 2014.

Faculty of Social Sciences & 3M Australia Top Student Prize

Awarded dux of the Masters of Science, Occupational Hygiene Practice degree at the University of Wollongong in 2014

Thiess Excellence Awards | Managing Directors Award

Winner of the Thiess “Blue Blood” Award in 2014

AIOH Draeger Young Hygienist Professional Development Award

Awarded in 2013 this award funded professional development in Germany and the United Kingdom.