As much as there exists deep sympathies for the workers affected with silicosis, recent sensationalised media and union claims that engineered stone is causing a new ‘epidemic’ are a seeming misdirection.

They are attempting to lay the blame not just on the material but on a specific product by brand that constitutes only a portion of the market in that material and a small fraction of the environmental sources of Respirable Crystalline Silica (RCS) within the construction sector. They should not be attempting to lay the blame on any specific material or product per se.  There is no doubt that engineered stone contains crystalline silica and that it is a Category 1 carcinogen according to the International Agency on Research into Cancer (IARC), but many other products and materials do also.

Global GreenTag in our day to day work have direct knowledge of many of these products, because we independently certify their health and sustainability of these and thousands of other products and know the ingredients, and recipes of not just engineered stone, but every other product we certify down to 0.01% or 100 parts per million including bricks, pavers, and concrete and other products.

According to the Cancer Council, the mandatory limit for silica dust exposure in Australia is 0.05mg/m3 averaged over an eight hour day (except in Tasmania where it is 0.1mg/m3). The level of 0.02mg/m3 is preferred and reduces the risk of lung cancer and silicosis. However, there is currently no evidence to suggest a safe level of silica dust exposure.

The many other products that contain crystalline silica at levels high enough to cause cancer when mishandled- including concrete, concrete blocks, aerated concrete, mortar, bricks, natural stone such as granite, basalt and other igneous rock as well as sandstones, pavers, tiles and cement sheeting. Crystalline silica is even often contained in soils and sites dusts off sanding soils or fine dusts off bulk sands and gravel on building and construction sites. In fact anywhere where rock and sand (including recycled manufactured sand) dusts form.

The bigger question we need to ask ourselves is…”If we are to ban engineered stone, are we also to ban the other products that contain it in significant concentrations, and if so…’are we prepared to live in a world where those products are not easily or practicably available?’ Even dirt road maintenance is a potential worker hazard for RCS according to a study by the US National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.

Let us have a look at the list of materials that might also have to be banned should engineered stone be considered for banning:

Main source: Worksafe Australia (other sources noted) – some direct knowledge shown.

The issue is not that these sources of crystalline silica exist, because they are omni-present in construction zones, the issue is about whether, or at what concentrations, workers or even passer-bys inhale them and for how long. Crystalline silica is also present anywhere quartz sand exists. Fortunately, beach and river sands have had the fines washed largely away, but manufactured sands from recycled glass or concrete if inadequately washed, may present an issue.

Other tasks that generate large amounts of RCS at construction sites are concrete grinding, drilling, cutting and chipping and block, brick and cement sheet cutting, removing mortar between bricks, cutting rocks, and ballasting structures.

Many studies have reported that the concentration of RCS exceeded the occupational exposure limits in various construction jobs including concrete workers, such as recess millers, tuck pointers, and bricklayers; demolition workers; labourers; operating engineers; and even construction cleaners.

A 2019 Korean study concluded that ‘Concrete finishing workers at apartment complex construction sites are exposed to unacceptably high concentrations of respirable dust and respirable crystalline silica. Even if engineering controls, such as LEV systems, wet methods, and highly efficient respirators are applied, the Respirable Dust and RCS may still exceed occupational exposure limits. To protect workers’ health, dust-minimizing construction methods as well as high-efficiency respirators paired with local exhaust ventilation systems or wet methods must be employed. Further efforts to reduce the total working time and to use full-faced air-purifying respirators are required.”

Indoors is worse than outdoors because concentrations are typically higher and wind speed is lower so dusts linger, longer. Workers also regularly cutting with dry abrasive wheels rather than water-lubricated cutting equipment are exposed for much longer than a passer by, but both share the risk. Wet working has been shown to reduce exposure by up to 91%.

Its also not a factor of ignorance for lack of information, Safety Data Sheets (SDSs) from manufacturers have for many years shown IARC Category 1 Risk and Hazard Statements as the new Globally Harmonised System (GHS) chemical Hazard classification system adopted by Worksafe Australia (WSA) and WSA’s own website information has clearly shown over many years.

This ‘epidemic’ of silicosis has more in common with the last big recent product scandal when ‘flammable cladding’ was blamed for apartment fires in the UK and Melbourne than any material related health issue. The issue is not actually about the product which was and still is a legal, appropriate material when used in accordance with the NCC requirements, it is more about ignorance and negligence, plain and simple- both corporate and personal. What’s needed is not a ban on any specific product or material, nor indeed any class action law suits. What is needed is apportionment and acceptance of responsibility within the employer, union and user groups.

Companies, trades, unions and indeed some workers and contractors themselves need to own their own, sometimes wilful negligence, rather than taking aim at the biggest cashed up supplier of what is in fact, a rather generic product across literally dozens of suppliers and manufacturers and a slew of countries from China to Vietnam to Israel and Korea.

Instead class action lawyers and headline grabbing television shows unfairly target the biggest Brand as a potential cash-cow and try to blame a product that shares the same health risks as windblown sand, concrete and even wood dust, wood smoke and diesel fumes (carbon black). In fact with so many sources of cancer producing dusts on any given building site, how can any lawyer or judge, be sure how to apportion any blame?

Given we are talking about cancer producing dusts, let’s open up another front where endemic poor work practices exist across an entire industry and going out on a, not too long limb, suggest the next lung cancer ‘epidemic’ in tradie-dom and builders will be in carpenters and joiners, from another dust they refuse to wear Personal Protective Equipment for (PPE), i.e., wood dust. Wood dust exposure over extended work periods is an IARC classified Category 1 carcinogen as mentioned previously…when was the last time any one of you saw a carpenter on a building sites wearing an N-95 or P-2 dust mask? Yes those are the same type of mask recommended for hospital use during the ongoing COVID-19 epidemic, so…never.

The parallels between wood product producing factories and stonemason or engineered stone processing factories are similar…both typically use appropriate dust suppression or removal with high quality filtration.

But just like carpenters, (many of whom also from time to time install stone tops) engineered and natural stone installers habitually have refused to wear PPE. In Australia’s climate, its hard to blame and near impossible to enforce (as an ex-builder of 8 years and still current registered architect, I have personally had that conversation with many tradesmen over the approximately 45 years I have been in the profession studying and actioning healthy buildings).

Direct experience with tradies is that they are typically ‘highly individual’ and highly resistant to advice that would inconvenience them i.e. they are a type of people that, when informed of the dangers of not wearing PPE on job sites when working with masonry or wood, say ‘don’t care’. They consider themselves tough individuals who don’t think PPE is useful and makes them look ‘less than a man’ if they chose to wear it. That said, surely there are non-typical tradies out there who do wear PPE, who I haven’t met, and to those people I apologise for lumping them in with those whom I have met and who completely ‘poo-poohed’ the idea of a carpenter wearing PPE masks while cutting, planing, sanding or otherwise processing wood or wood products on sites or manually without dust suppression anywhere.

Jumping back to the initial subject at hand, silicosis in engineered stone processors and installers. As shown in the table above, RCS is a worse case issue than wood dust by a factor of 10-50 times, but the risk is there with wood nonetheless.

There is also no doubt there are some employers out there who employ people with poor language skills or low levels of education and as attested to by the actions and fines recorded in the recent Worksafe Australia response to TV Chanel Nine’s questions, take advantage of their situation to make more money by cutting health corners, but the issue of workers being exposed to silicosis from dry cutting without PPE, of stone and engineered stone has been in the media now for literally years, the earliest publication on the ABC found was five years ago…likewise the SDS warning of the risks have been available for more like 20 years, and been in the public domain on websites like Worksafe Australia and Ecospecifier.com.au since the early 2000s, and Global GreenTag since 2010.

Independent contractors and employers of tradesmen, even potentially some of the sick workers themselves are seeking to avert blame, and liability, by placing the blame where it does not belong, with the manufacturers and suppliers who have legally provided all the necessary information formation for safe handling of their products, because they themselves refuse to accept that in large part, they are to blame by not following the mandatory available information provided by manufacturers for the safe handling of the products they were installing.

Remembering that crystalline silica is in many if not most products that contains silica sand, its dusts or fragments of silica crystals, including the dust that blows in the wind, who is responsible for workers with silicosis? Every situation is unique and likely to be different, but most likely the majority of the answer will come down to irresponsible processing contractors, installing companies, self-employed (and therefore self-responsible) or indeed sad to say the, workers themselves for often, wilfully or conveniently ignoring the information that has been plentifully available for many years.

It certainly isn’t Ceasarstone or its like competitors, or the concrete, concrete block, brick, tile, paver, or fibre-cement sheet industries that use sand in their products and that have fulfilled their legal obligations over many years, that should bear the responsibility unless the whole silica containing product industry does too…and even then, who bears the responsibility of wind-blown silica dust on construction sites, in the environment generally or even on dusty country roads? Is respirable crystalline silica the next asbestos? No…because the safe working information has been adequately and plentifully available for decades.

David Baggs LFRAIA has been a Registered Architect nationally for nearly 45 years, a previous Registered Builder for 8 years, is responsible for the design and construction of over 350 buildings and sustainability consultant for the past 25 years.  For the past 20 years he had been CEO of product health, toxicology and sustainability Verification and Certification companies including Ecospecifier and Global GreenTag. He is a Life Fellow of the Australian Institute of Architects, Member of the American Chemical Society and  Green Star and LEED Accredited Professional.

Declaration of Interest: the author has no commissions from Ceasarstone or interests in any engineered stone operation. Global GreenTag does certify Quantum Quartz and previously certified other engineered stone products. Neither have had any influence in this article nor are aware of this article going to press.

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Email: david.baggs@globalgreentag.com

Park, H., Hwang, E. and Yoon, C. (2019). Respirable Crystalline Silica Exposure among Concrete Finishing Workers at Apartment Complex Construction Sites. Aerosol Air Qual. Res. 19: 2804-2814. https://doi.org/10.4209/aaqr.2019.05.0251