Kate Cole OAM is a scientist and engineer with a long-standing focus on preventing workplace illness, particularly through her work on airborne hazards like silica dust. She has worked across major construction and tunnelling projects in Australia and overseas, and now runs her own consultancy, Cole Health. In this interview, Kate reflects on the experiences that shaped her career, how she approaches expert witness work, and the challenges of making technical evidence clear and useful in legal settings.
You've built a distinguished career at the forefront of occupational hygiene and health risk management. Looking back, what have been the defining moments that shaped your journey to becoming a recognised expert in this field?
Early in my career, I worked on major construction projects, witnessing firsthand the risks workers faced from exposure to airborne chemical hazards. A defining moment came when I met my first tunnel worker diagnosed with silicosis-then another, and another. Seeing the extent of this incurable disease reinforced the urgent need for stronger dust control measures.
This has led me to developing large-scale occupational hygiene programs on tunnelling projects and ultimately led to my being awarded a Winston Churchill Fellowship to investigate global best practices for protecting tunnel workers' health. Applying the insights gained from this fellowship, I organised the Australian tunnelling industry's first Silica in Tunnelling Workshop at the Australasian Tunnelling Society (ATS) Conference in 2017. This event brought together key stakeholders from major tunnelling projects and sparked the formation of the ATS Air Quality Working Group, which I led for a year. Our work resulted in a new body of knowledge on silica dust awareness and control, earning international recognition with the International Tunnelling Association's Safety Initiative of the Year award in 2019.
Since then, I have been dedicated to raising awareness of the growing silicosis epidemic in both the stone benchtop and tunnelling industries. Through media advocacy and national-level campaigning, I have pushed for a ban on engineered stone to create safer working conditions for Australian workers.
Receiving an OAM for services to workplace health and safety was a humbling recognition of this work and reaffirmed my commitment to driving meaningful change in occupational health.
As the founder of Cole Health, how do you balance your hands-on technical consultancy work, particularly when acting as an expert witness in complex legal matters?
Balancing technical consultancy with expert witness responsibilities requires a structured and evidence-driven approach. I ensure that all assessments are grounded in rigorous, evidence-based methodologies, allowing me to provide objective, defensible analyses that hold up under legal scrutiny. My hands-on consultancy work also keeps me closely connected to real-world industry practices, enhancing the depth and relevance of my expert opinions. By maintaining this dual focus, I can deliver both practical solutions and authoritative testimony in complex legal matters.
Your work often involves assessing invisible hazards like airborne contaminants and silica dust. How do you translate highly technical findings into clear, courtroom-ready expert opinions?
A key challenge in expert witness work is translating complex occupational hygiene data into clear, compelling courtroom evidence. I focus on making my findings accessible by using straightforward language, analogies, and visual aids like photographs and charts. I also try to anticipate potential questions and misconceptions, ensuring my reports are structured to be both technically rigorous and easily understandable for legal professionals and decision-makers.
What are some of the most common misconceptions you encounter in legal cases involving workplace health and safety?
One of the biggest misconceptions in workplace health and safety cases is the belief that exposure to airborne hazards isn't harmful, when in reality, these exposures often have cumulative and long-term health effects. Another common misunderstanding is that providing personal protective equipment (PPE) alone is enough to keep workers safe. In truth, effective risk management follows a hierarchy of controls, prioritising elimination and engineering measures over PPE. Lastly, there's a mistaken assumption that dust control practices have remained the same over time, when in fact, our understanding and approaches have evolved significantly with new research and technology.
The intersection of law, science, and workplace risk can be challenging. What do you believe makes an effective and credible expert witness in occupational health matters?
I think that an expert witness needs to have a solid technical understanding of the subject, have strong analytical skills, and the ability to communicate complex science in a clear, unbiased manner. Credibility hinges on impartiality, so it's essential to remain objective, focusing solely on the evidence and the facts. Staying up to date with the latest research and industry best practices is also crucial to ensuring that expert opinions are scientifically sound and withstand legal scrutiny.
