Australia’s unions have launched a major campaign renewing their call for engineered stone to be banned due to the risk of silicosis.
In a joint announcement on 20 February 2023, the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), Australian Workers’ Union, and the Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) have called for either more protections or an outright ban on working with engineered stone products.
Home renovations hit an all-time high during the pandemic ($12.3 billion in 2021) and the increased use of engineered stone in kitchen benchtops has driven a re-emergence of silicosis, with nearly one in four workers (in the industry since before 2018) impacted by silica dust related diseases.
Speaking with the ABC later that day, ACTU assistant secretary Liam O’Brien said Australia was on the cusp of an ‘industrial epidemic’ that would ‘dwarf’ asbestos.
“We need to act urgently to protect workers from this horrible, horrible disease,” he said.
The CFMEU, the union that represents stonemasons, first said it would ban its members from working on engineered stone products by mid- 2024, if the government did not step in, back in November 2022 and has repeated that call this week.
“The science is clear-cut, engineered stone is killing workers,” CFMEU boss Zach Smith said.
“There is no safe level of exposure to engineered stone: this is the asbestos of the 2020s.”
Silica dust, defined as a Group 1 carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer back in 1997 (and again in 2012), is also found naturally in many building and construction products, including sand, soil, stone, concrete, and mortar, as well as being used in the manufacture of building products such as bricks, tiles, and glass.
Modelling conducted by Curtin University for an April 2022 report on the future burden from occupational silica exposure suggested that up to 10,000 Australians are predicted to develop lung cancer in their lifetime, with more than half a million Australian workers currently subjected to the harmful dust.
Lead researcher Dr Renee Carey, from Curtin’s School of Population Health, said the modelling, commissioned by the ACTU provided the best available estimate of the future number of lung cancer and silicosis cases that would result.
“Our modelling predicts more than 10,000 Australians will develop lung cancer and up to 103,000 workers will be diagnosed with silicosis as the result of their current exposure to silica dust at work,” Dr Carey said when the report was released.
“We estimated that more than half a million Australian workers are currently exposed to silica dust across various industries, including construction, mining and quarrying, and manufacturing jobs.”
Exposure to silica can take years or even decades to develop to the point where obvious symptoms of silicosis arise, with potentially life-threatening consequences, and many people in the industry may not be aware of the urgent need for health assessments.
Furthermore, in silica exposed workers, silicosis continues to be diagnosed after the cessation of exposure.
Silicosis has no cure and, reminiscent of the fallout from Asbestos, legal action seeking compensation for affected workers is still taking place around the nation, with employees suing over silica related health and safety breaches.
“Modelling of interventions for occupational RCS exposure demonstrated that higher order controls (specifically elimination) are likely to have the most impact, as expected,” Dr Carey said.
“However, modelling also demonstrated that significant impact can still be achieved with the use of Future burden from occupational silica exposure in Australia via administrative and engineering controls.”
Co-author Professor Lin Fritschi, also from the Curtin School of Population Health, said banning engineered stone would save lives.
“While a complete ban of engineered stone would be the best option, it is possible to reduce the health impacts of working with engineered stone by various methods such as mandatory wet-cutting or on-tool dust extraction, as long as these methods are combined with the consistent use of high-quality respiratory protection,” Professor Fritschi said.
“The damage from other types of silica-containing materials could be reduced by using better dust suppression techniques on mine and construction sites and using wet-cutting during concrete cutting and grinding.”
Industry was scathing of the National Dust Disease Taskforce’s recommendation not to implement an immediate ban in July 2021 on engineered stone benchtops, which can have a silica content of up to 90%, especially as the Taskforce, established in 2019, admitted in its findings that existing WHS regulatory frameworks had not effectively protected people working with engineered stone.
Less than four months later, the ACU launched a petition in support of protecting Australian workers on 1 November 2022 stating that, “our safety standards and their enforcement in Australia are so shameful that even workers in the USA and Mexico have better protection from silica dust.”
The petition called for national regulation setting out minimum benchmarks to protect workers in every affected industry, with tough penalties for employers who fail to comply, as well as the establishment of a compensation fund, backed by employers and industry, to help provide financial relief to workers diagnosed with silicosis and their families.
Speaking with WA’s ABC Radio Mornings on 20 February 2023, Minister for Health and Aged Care, Mr Mark Butler, said that the current situation is ‘an epidemic’ of a new version of lung disease that was in the process of being addressed by federal, state and territory governments.
“We are in the process now of rolling out, all of us, rolling out our response to a report that was issued last year about how we deal with this awful, awful disease,” Minister Butler said.
“We are a huge user of these stone kitchen tops, and we have an enormous share of the global market in this area. And I think it has been a shock to people – most obviously people impacted directly, but also a shock to the community – at the health toll that has been imposed by this.
“We have obviously had discussions with unions… we are taking an open mind to this to make sure that we have the strongest possible response because we have been meeting with young people, middle-aged people, and older people who have been impacted by this disease, and it is just shocking and tragic.
“I have asked our department (I know Tony Burke is asking his department, who has responsibility for workplace safety) whether that response really is sufficient, [and] if that response is insufficient, if it moves too slowly, then we will have to take further action.”
In a press release issued 21 February 2023, ACTU assistant secretary Liam O’Brien said that ministers should be “mindful of the history and legacy of asbestos in Australia,” noting that a complete ban on the building material was not put in place until 2003, despite decades of known risks and exposures.
“The evidence is clear that silica dust generated in the manufacturing of engineered stone is a serious health risk for workers, many of whom will go on to develop the incurable, debilitating and life-threatening silicosis,” Mr O’Brien said.
“We cannot afford to repeat the mistakes of the past.”
The unions are scheduled to meet with workplace health and safety ministers on February 28.