A leading South Australian cabinet maker says a national ban on engineered stone would drastically impact their business.
Safe Work Australia is considering prohibiting its use due to the risk of people working with it developing the incurable lung disease silicosis.
The disease is caused by breathing in tiny particles of silica, often when cutting or drilling the material.
The operations manager at Miller Kitchens in Port Lincoln, Luke Martin, says 60 per cent of their customers ask for engineered stone for bench tops.
It is traditionally bought in large slabs from overseas and sent to a fabricator in Adelaide, who cuts it to a template size and sends it to installers like Miller Kitchen on a truck.
"We'd ideally not have to do too much with it at that point. But we do have to manipulate where needed to suit a wall or any sort of variation in the building that we're working in," Mr Martin said.
Staff were expected to wear breathing apparatus masks to meet safety standards.
"We definitely minimise the people who are around when stone is being cut. Ideally, it would be cut outside," Mr Martin said.
"It's not something we enjoy or any of the boys here want to be using."
Mr Martin expected a massive resource shortage if the material were suddenly banned.
"A massive amount of the material that's in Australia for cabinetry would be gone," Mr Martin said.
Union calls for ban on 'deadly dust'
The Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union (CFMMEU) has joined the calls for a ban.
District secretary Brad Coates said the increase in these products had been dramatic over the past 10 years.
"There's been a bit of an explosion in the use of engineered stone because it's a cheaper product than things like marble," Mr Coates said.
"There's been so much of this product that's been installed in houses right across the country that it's probably going to be a residual problem for some time to come into the future."
He likened the impact to asbestos.
"[The difference is] a lot of the workers that we're coming across are affected by this are under 30 years old," Mr Coates said.
"A lot more young people are developing silicosis, which leads to a very shortened life."
He said it could also impact the families of those working with engineered stone.
"We saw that with asbestos, it was the partners who were washing their clothes. Some of them unfortunately developed mesothelioma and passed away," Mr Coates said.
Plenty of alternatives out there
Mr Coates said the majority of engineered stone was manufactured overseas — another reason to ban it locally.
"We should be looking to use some of our products that are manufactured and sourced here in Australia," Mr Coates said.
Mr Martin said there were plenty of alternatives on the market, such as timber, laminate, and natural stone with low or no silica.
"The initial issue there would be that the product may not be ready and available in Australia and around SA as we speak," Mr Martin said.
Mr Coates said a decision needed to be made sooner rather than later.
"It's already having fatal effects on workers and we should make some decisions now so that those workers can go to work in the future and not be exposed to this deadly dust," he said.
