Ban on Domestic Use of Silica on the Cards in Australia

Employment and Workplace Minister Tony Burke speaks during the jobs and skills summit at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, on Sept. 1, 2022. (Martin Ollman/Getty Images)

Australian federal workplace ministers will ask state and federal ministers to accelerate the ban on the domestic use of silica due to the risks it carries of causing an incurable, progressive, and in many cases, fatal lung disease.

Each year around 600,000 Australian workers are exposed to silica dust at work, according to the Australian Workers Union.

As it is 100 times smaller than a grain of sand, when breathed in, silica dust is small enough to penetrate deep into the lungs, causing irreversible lung damage.

As one of the key components of soil, sand and granite, it’s used on a vast scale across Australia in construction, tunnelling, excavating, mining, and road construction. It’s also widely used in the renewable energy sector, such as in thermal energy storage and solar panels.

Minister Confident Draft Legislation Will Be Finalised By December

Tony Burke will urge ministers to ban the domestic use of silica and consider an importation ban at a meeting on Tuesday, with the hope that draft legislation will be finalised by the end of the year.

Burke noted he was confident that states and territories’ workplace health ministers would back an immediate ban, which would take at least 12 months.

The federal minister needs two-thirds of jurisdictions to agree.

“Silica has the risks of becoming the new asbestos,” he told reporters in Canberra.

“But as we’ve had the conversations office to office, it hasn’t been a party politics thing across which governments, Labor or Liberal. There has been a good degree of support for the concept that we shouldn’t be waiting any longer before we’re at least scoping out what a ban might look like.”

Burke said the scoping would include what percentage of silica in stone would be banned.

“If you’re talking about kitchen, bathroom benchtops, some of them go up to 95 per cent silica. Others can be as low as 40 per cent, lower than ordinary stone,” he said.

He added that Work Australia had “the expertise to work through exactly where the line should be drawn.”

“But wherever that line is drawn, it has to be drawn on the side of people being able to go to work and come home without a terminal illness.”

Workers Exposed to Silica in Australia Estimated at 600,000 Each Year

A study by Curtin University estimated that between 80,000 and 100,000 workers suffered from silicosis symptoms, with about 600,000 workers exposed to the potentially deadly dust each year.

“Silicosis is a serious, incurable, irreversible and progressive disease affecting the lungs,” Australian Workers Union said.

“It occurs with the body’s immune response to the presence of silica dust in the small airways and tiny air sacs (alveoli) of the lungs and results in scarring the lung tissue. In the early stages of silicosis, there aren’t any warning signs, but as the disease progresses, symptoms such as shortness of breath, coughing, fatigue, and weight loss develop”

The Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) said it would take the “extremely rare step” of prohibiting engineered stone from July 2024 if the federal government didn’t take action earlier.

“We can’t afford to waste another day,” incoming CFMEU National Secretary Zach Smith said.

“Anything less than a ban sends a signal this product is fine, when in actual fact it’s the asbestos of this generation.

“Morally bankrupt companies flooding Australia with cheap engineered stone need to be sent the clearest possible message.”

The dust and diseases task force recommended governments start considering a ban in July next year.

A report by Safe Work Australia to be presented to the ministers will recommend three actions - an education and awareness campaign, better regulation of silica dust across all industries, and further analysis and scoping of a ban on use of engineered stone.

Ministers will meet again later in the year to review progress.

Occupational health experts say the material can’t be worked with safely despite the use of equipment such as masks.

AAP contributed to this report.