The workplace safety regulator in the ACT is toughening its policing of new laws to protect workers from silica dust.
SafeWork ACT has introduced a new code of practice for work places where engineered stone, bricks, tiles, concrete and other dust-generating materials are processed.
The ACT's laws are the toughest in Australia, and breaking them could incur fines running into the thousands of dollars.
The crackdown on processing materials which contain silica comes as Bunnings prepares to stop selling a range of kitchen benchtops which are made of "engineered stone" which contains the substance.
In the ACT, the government has toughened the law. SafeWork ACT has now trained inspectors to be ready to get tough with employers who continue not to use stringent safety measures for materials which contain cancer-causing silica.
The ACT has gone further than other jurisdictions which have confined their rules to engineered stone. The ACT has broadened its regulations to most other silica-containing materials, including tiles, bricks and concrete.
Silicosis (caused by breathing-in silica dust) is potentially fatal and certainly debilitating to workers.
The Minister for Workplace Safety Mick Gentleman wants to go further and ban engineered stone outright. "There is no scientific evidence of a safe level of exposure to silica dust generated from cutting engineered stone," he said.
Under the new regulations:
- Workers must be trained in how to handle and cut not just engineered stone but other materials like tiles.
- Their health has to be monitored by doctors who specialize in workplace illnesses.
- Control measures to suppress dust must be in place. This includes ventilation, running water to suppress dust and masked-up workers.
- Dry-cutting materials is not allowed.
WorkSafe ACT commissioner Jacqueline Agius said: "We continue to see non-compliance, with failures to protect workers from silica dust."
"We must take a stand, take action; and use the new Code of Practice to ensure workers are protected from silica dust that comes from all materials - not just engineered stone, but also materials like concrete and bricks and other natural stones."
She said that since the law changed last year, SafeWork ACT had issued 68 improvement or prohibition notices (ordering employers to make safer or stop dangerous practices involving silica). Eight more serious infringement notices has been issued with penalties totaling $30,720.
One of the tougher rules in the ACT is that specialist doctors have to examine workers to assess their levels of silicosis. This is because X-rays alone do not necessarily reveal the lung disease. It needs a doctor to analyse a range of factors, like how long a worker has been exposed to the stuff.
The industry has been trying to head off an outright ban on engineered stone.
The chief executive of Caesarstone Australia said tougher regulation of the manufactured stone material rather than an outright ban was a better solution.
"The product can be handled safely," David Cullen said.
"There are many products which have dangerous elements - like paints or poisons - do you ban these products?" he asked.
The construction union rejected that claim. "This is really about blood money," Zach Smith, national and ACT secretary of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union said.
The Bunnings decision indicates that the union campaign is getting traction. Ordinary people who might be buying engineered stone to cut up themselves seem to be realising the dangers.
The WorkSafe ACT code is meant to inform these DIY users as well as employers who run formal workshops.
