If your business has been treating the Physical Agents Regulations (PAR) and Noise Exposure Regulations (NER) as "something to get to eventually," that runway just ended. Both sets of regulations were promulgated under the Occupational Health and Safety Act on 6 March 2025 — but they came with an 18-month overlap period during which the old rules they replace stayed on the books. That overlap closed on 6 September 2026. From this date, the Environmental Regulations for Workplaces (1987) and the Noise-Induced Hearing Loss Regulations (2003) are repealed, and PAR and NER stand alone as the law. For employers who used the transition period to prepare, this is a formality. For those who didn't, it's the point where gaps become liabilities.
NER sets a noise action level of 82 dBA and a noise-rating limit of 85 dBA (8-hour time-weighted averages), with concomitant exposure to ototoxic chemicals or whole-body vibration pulling the action level trigger down further. The regulations — read together with the accompanying Code of Practice for Audiometry — required every exposed employee without a valid baseline to have an initial audiometric test completed within 18 months of publication. That deadline was 6 September 2026. Going forward, periodic audiometry is required every 12 months for exposures between 85 dBA and 105 dBA (or 82 dBA with concomitant exposure), and every 6 months above 105 dBA — alongside exit testing, noise zone demarcation, and a documented hierarchy of control before hearing protective devices become the answer of last resort.
PAR consolidates what used to sit under the old Environmental Regulations into one integrated "physical agents programme" spanning cold stress, heat stress, illumination, indoor air quality, vibration and occupational non-ionising radiation. The regulations require a physical agent exposure risk assessment and monitoring programme for each hazard present in the workplace, plus (where deemed necessary) medical screening carried out by an occupational health practitioner: an initial screening before the employee starts, periodic screening at intervals not exceeding 24 months, and an exit screening on termination. Where exposure sits at or above the occupational exposure limit for a given agent, employers must show a documented response — reviewing controls, adjusting work methods, and in the case of heat and cold stress, capping exposure durations against the tables set out in the regulations. This isn't paperwork for its own sake: it's the evidence base an occupational health practitioner needs to certify fitness, apply restrictions, and defend those decisions if challenged.
Both regulations carry the same penalty structure: conviction can mean a fine or up to 12 months' imprisonment, with a continuing offence attracting a further R200 per day it persists. That's a modest headline fine, but it understates the real exposure — a documented failure to conduct required audiometry or medical screening is precisely the kind of evidence that surfaces in a Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases Act (COIDA) claim or an inspector's improvement notice, long after the fine itself has been paid.
Three questions worth asking this week: do you have a current physical agent and noise exposure risk assessment for every workplace where these hazards are present? Is your medical surveillance system actually tracking initial, periodic and exit screening intervals per employee, rather than relying on memory? And have your noise zones been formally demarcated, signed, and matched to a hierarchy-of-controls plan rather than a box of ear plugs? If the answer to any of those is uncertain, that uncertainty is now sitting in a regulatory gap rather than a grace period.
.jpeg)
