Six leading healthcare bodies have backed union calls for a ban of engineered stone products to be in place across Australia by the middle of next year.

As Commonwealth and state work, health and safety ministers prepare to consider a potential ban on importation and use of engineered stone products throughout Australia at a meeting next week, six leading health organisations have issued a joint call for stronger action to combat deadly silicosis disease in Australia.

The six organisations include The Lung Foundation Australia, Thoracic Society of Australia, Australian and New Zealand Society of Occupational Medicine Inc, Australian Institute of Health & Safety, Public Health Association of Australia and the Australian Institute of Occupational Hygienists.

In particular, the organisations have backed calls by the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) to ban the importation and use of high-content silica engineering stone products in Australia.

“Over the past two decades there has been a high uptake in the use of high-silica content engineered stone products and this, combined with increased exposures in other industries, has resulted in a dramatic increase in the numbers of people diagnosed with lung and other pathologies (such as silicosis and lung cancer) due to exposure to respirable crystalline silica (RCS),” the organisations said in a joint statement.

“As there is no cure for silicosis, a significant subset of people will be plagued by deteriorating health and an untimely death.

“Silica is naturally occurring and therefore present in many construction and building materials. The relevant industries include mining, tunnelling, construction, demolition, quarrying and manufacturing of silica powder.

“The increase in cases of silicosis clearly demonstrates the lack of awareness and failure to effectively control harmful exposures to RCS.

“As experts in health, disease prevention, and occupational health and safety, we believe that it is essential that governments and employers adopt policies and programs to systematically control exposure to RCS, including implementing a ban on the use of high-content silica engineered stone products.”

The latest calls come amid growing concern that the increasing use of engineered stone products will lead to hundreds of thousands of workers being afflicted by the deadly silicosis disease.

Occupational silica dust exposure is one of the oldest known causes of lung disease, in particular silicosis.

Silica, also known as silicon-dioxide, is a naturally occurring and widely abundant mineral.

It accounts for 59 per cent of the earth’s crust, and is a major constituent of rocks, sand, glass, quartz, natural stones and particularly engineered stone products.

Of particular concern are engineered stone products, which have become commonly used for bathroom and kitchen surfaces and in particular kitchen benchtops on account of their low cost as well as their durability, resistance to scratching/chipping/staining, versatility and low maintenance.

These products can comprise up to 97 percent silica. Accordingly, they present a particularly high risk of workers developing breathing problems and silicosis if they breathe in dust made from these products.

The magnitude of the problem should not be underestimated.

In July modelling from Curtain University found that of the current Australian workforce, around 103,000 workers will be diagnosed with silicosis as a result of their exposure to silica dust at work whilst a further 10,0000 will develop lung cancer.

Should a ban on engineering stone be introduced from the middle of next year, that report found that almost 100 lung cancers and a thousand silicosis cases could be prevented.

In its final report in 2021, the National Dust Disease Taskforce suggested 16 actions across seven recommendations to address growing concerns over various occupational dust diseases including silicosis.

Whilst the Taskforce did not recommend an immediate ban on the importation of engineered stone products, it recommended that the Commonwealth and states commence work to prepare for such a ban from July 2024 onward in the event that other actions fail to deliver significant improvement in results.

The three-year timeframe was sufficient to enable technical issues associated with a potential ban to be worked through, the taskforce said.

In a joint response released last March, the former Coalition Commonwealth Government and the states said that a ban would only be considered if other measures failed to deliver sufficient outcomes.

However, the current Labor Government has indicated that a potential ban on imported manufactured stone projects containing silica is one option that will be considered at next week’s meeting along with other measures including stronger regulations across all industries where workers have been exposed to silica.

In addition to the ban, the six healthcare organisation urged ministers to also adopt several other measures.

Amongst these, the group would like ministers to:

• Partner with, and support unions, employers, and professional organisations to develop and implement a national awareness and behaviour change campaign.
• Adopt a broad silica regulation, supported by industry codes of practices, to be included in the Model Laws by the end of 2023. The scope must cover the whole supply chain and all industries (including mining and quarrying) The scope must cover the whole supply chain and all industries (including mining and quarrying in states where workers are not currently protected by these interventions) and be based on the Victorian approach. It should also include the requirement to undertake training in high-risk silica processing.
• Increase enforcement activity in engineered stone and other high-risk silica processing sectors.
• Require Safe Work Australia to recognise and consider the inadequacies of current workers’ compensation systems for workers with chronic illnesses, such as silicosis, and propose further reforms for consideration. Governments must also investigate how to better support affected workers who are no longer in the workforce.

“Our aim is to eliminate, as far as possible, exposure to and diseases caused by exposure to RCS in Australia,” the group said.