It seems like the equation around artificial stone benchtops should be simple: respiratory physicians and unions want them banned and governments say they want to protect workers.
And yet nearly a decade after the first Australian case of silicosis associated with engineered stone was reported, the industry is showing no signs of going anywhere, with stonemasons continuing to develop silicosis at alarming rates around the country.
The scale of the problem was laid bare in a study published earlier this year, which found almost 90% of workers had been exposed to unsafe dry processing.
The study included 544 stonemasons who underwent primary screening (involving chest x-rays) through a Victorian scheme open to anyone in the industry between May 2019 and October 2021.
Of these workers, 76% required secondary screening involving a high-resolution CT (HRCT) scan and respiratory physician assessment, following which 28% were diagnosed with silicosis, confirming “an alarmingly high prevalence”, researchers said.
Moreover, 95% had worked with artificial stone and a little over 86% had exposure to dry processing either personally or as a bystander, they reported in BMJ Occupational & Environmental Medicine (link here).
In the words of Dr Graeme Edwards, a former member of the national dust disease taskforce, government inaction is “effectively supporting slow, painful, distressing deaths to occur”.
“Every day the work health and safety ministers fail to act, they are complicit in industrial manslaughter,” he said this week (link here).
However, it appears the wait may finally be coming to an end, with Safe Work Australia publishing its recommendations for a national ban last week.
The agency’s report acknowledged silicosis was a problem across a range of industries and silica-containing materials, but noted the “disproportionate” number of diagnoses in the artificial stone industry.
“In these workers (compared to workers exposed to silica from natural sources), silicosis is associated with a shorter duration of exposure to silica, faster disease progression and higher mortality,” it said.
There were three options considered by Safe Work Australia:
- Prohibition on the use of all engineered stone
- Prohibition on the use of engineered stone containing 40% or more crystalline silica
- As for option 2, with an accompanying licensing scheme for businesses working with engineered stone containing less than 40% crystalline silica.
Given that scientific evidence found that even engineered stone with lower silica content posed unmanageable risks to the health and safety of workers, Safe Work Australia recommended a blanket ban of the product.
Ministers must decide
The decision of when and how to proceed with a ban now rests with state and territory workplace relations ministers, who have committed to work in concert on any national regulations.
They will need to weigh up the cost of prohibiting the substance, estimated to run to $251 million Annually to business and governments, against the risks to workers.
Australia’s biggest construction union, the CFMEU, has already declared it will go it alone and ban members from working with the artificial stone from next year if safety does not improve.
Meanwhile, a coalition of health groups and unions, including TSANZ, the Lung Foundation and Cancer Council have all urged ministers to do the right and introduce a ban by July next year.
“Banning engineered stone will not eliminate silicosis but it will protect those involved in very high-risk work,” they said.
“Our aim is to prevent silicosis in Australia.”
“We urge work health and safety ministers to immediately adopt the report’s recommendation to ban all engineered stone and protect workers who are paying the true cost of our shiny kitchen benchtops.”
The RACP also backed the ban, “as a matter of urgency” and added that governments need to go further.
“There is a dire need for a national dust disease reporting system and national dust disease registry. The Taskforce has been calling for this from the start and it should be a matter of priority,” it said.
“There could potentially be thousands of workers right now who have not been identified as being exposed to silica, and we need a reporting system to be able to identify and monitor those who are at risk.”
Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke has stopped short of agreeing to push his counterparts to introduce the ban, but said on Friday the report was “powerful and compelling”.
“We will convene another meeting of Work Health and Safety Ministers this year to decide on next steps,” he said.