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Australia to ban engineered stone over silicosis fears


www.personneltoday.com | Nic Paton

Australia will next year ban engineered-stone worktops and kitchen counters nationally because of the health risks they pose to installers, especially in terms of silicosis.

The move follows a long campaign by politicians in the state of Queensland to implement a ban. Commonwealth, state and territory leaders agreed to the national ban at a meeting of industrial relations ministers earlier this week. The ban will take effect from July next year.

The move is believed to have made Australia the first country to announce a complete ban of engineered stone.

The ban was welcomed by Queensland industrial relations minister Grace Grace: “This is a dangerous product that’s known to cause the potentially fatal disease silicosis, and it has no place in our workplaces,” she said.

“All workers have a right to turn up to a safe and healthy workplace and I’m proud to be part of a government which has helped deliver this key measure to protect workers,” she added.

The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) also welcomed the ban, pointing to research suggesting that in some states as many as one in four stonemasons working with engineered stone had been diagnosed with silicosis.

Scientific and medical evidence has found that even when workers cut and fabricate low silica stone products this generates significant amounts of very fine particles of silica that are able to penetrate deep into the lungs of workers and cause disease, the ACTU argued.

ACTU assistant secretary…


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