Curtin University’s Dr Renee Carey says much more can be done to prevent a predicted rush of silicosis and lung cancer cases across Australia.
About 7% of Australian workers, or more than half a million people, are currently exposed to silica dust across various jobs, with exposure most common among miners and construction workers.
Silica dust is an aggressive lung-damaging dust which can result in breathing difficulties, scarring of the lungs (silicosis) and lung cancer. We have estimated that as many as 10,000 Australian workers will develop lung cancer in their lifetime as a result of their exposure to silica dust, and 103,000 will be diagnosed with silicosis.
Silica dust is found naturally in many building and construction products, including sand, stone, concrete and mortar. It is also used in the manufacture of building products such as bricks, tiles and glass. Engineered stone, used mainly for kitchen benchtops, is a particularly potent source of silica dust.
While silicosis has historically been rare in Australia, the increased use of engineered stone is driving a re-emergence of this disease. This prompted the Australian Government to set up the National Dust Diseases Taskforce with the aim of improving the health and safety of those working with silica dust. Their final report, published in June 2021, recommended further analysis of the best ways to prevent exposure to silica dust.
As a result, Safe Work Australia has recently released a regulatory impact statement for consultation. This statement looks at a number of options to reduce exposure to silica dust and the cost of these over the next 10 years.
Safe Work Australia concluded that these options could save about five people every year from developing silicosis and prove cost effective. We have found that there’s scope to do much more than outlined, and that we could save many more lives than this.
In a report commissioned by the Australian Council of Trade Unions, we used a unique method which predicts how many Australian workers would develop lung cancer and silicosis in their lifetime as a result of their exposure to silica dust in one year.
To do this, we started with an estimate of how many workers were exposed to silica dust in 2016, the most recent census data year available. We used past exposure surveys and reports from New South Wales and Victoria, as well as data from the census around the number of engineered stone workers in Australia. We estimated that 584,000 Australians are exposed to silica dust at work.
We then modelled how many lung-cancer and silicosis cases would develop as a result of this exposure and looked at the impact of ways to reduce that exposure, including wet cutting, using good quality respirators, and banning engineered stone.
Our modelling predicted that more than 10,000 Australian workers will develop lung cancer and around 103,000 will be diagnosed with silicosis in their lifetime as a result of their exposure to silica dust at work.
We found that banning engineered stone could save almost 100 lung cancers and 1000 silicosis cases. This ban is not currently supported by government or considered by Safe Work Australia in their impact statement.
Other methods of reducing exposure, such as mandatory wet cutting and on-tool dust extraction, could also reduce the health impacts of working with engineered stone as long as these methods are used alongside high-quality and well-fitted respiratory protection. For example, wet cutting of engineered stone could save 40 lung cancers and 300 silicosis cases, and on-tool dust extraction could save 50 lung cancers and 400 silicosis cases.
Banning silica dust in other industries such as mining and construction isn’t feasible. However, it is possible to reduce exposure and the resulting health effects. If we use dust suppression on construction and mine sites, we could save up to 1400 lung cancers and 11,000 silicosis cases. Stopping workers from entering areas around mine site crushers could prevent 750 lung cancers and 7500 silicosis cases.
If it was possible to reduce exposure among mining workers to a level experienced by the general population, we could prevent around 2300 lung cancers and 20,000 silicosis cases.
These findings show that reducing exposure to silica dust will save lives. There are a number of practical steps that we can take now to save our workers from these debilitating but ultimately preventable lung diseases.