A standard constructing materials is being likened to the “new asbestos” regardless of being utilized in kitchens throughout the nation, placing greater than 275,000 Aussie tradies susceptible to most cancers and lung illness.
Engineered stone counter tops, that are riddled with lethal silica, are inflicting silicosis — an incurable work-related lung illness.
More than 70 circumstances are earlier than Australian courts. Workers, many on oxygen tanks or needing lung transplants, insist they had been by no means warned about how harmful the fabric they labored with may very well be.
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Engineered stone, generally utilized in counter tops as a less expensive various to marble and granite, poses no threat to these dwelling in the home after it’s put in.
To be protected within the office, although, it have to be reduce whereas moist, by staff carrying full protecting gear.
That is, sadly, not what number of stonemasons work — notably not earlier than 2018, when the consequences of silica had been identified however the first Australian silicosis endure had not but come ahead.
Engineered stone incorporates as much as 95 per cent crystalline silica, the mud of which is very poisonous. When inhaled in giant portions, it might probably trigger a bunch of lethal diseases, together with silicosis, auto-immune ailments, lung most cancers, kidney illness and pulmonary infections.
Marble, against this, incorporates simply two per cent silica. Granite incorporates between 10 and 50 per cent.
A quarter of one million tradies uncovered
A research from Curtin University estimated greater than 275,000 staff, principally tradies, had been uncovered to excessive ranges of the carcinogenic mud. Up to 103,000 of them can be identified with silicosis, the research predicted.
Silicosis is the oldest occupational lung illness on document, and its case numbers are solely rising. An explosion of circumstances previously 20 years coincides with the introduction of engineered stone into the Australian market, in addition to a record-breaking variety of new government-led constructing initiatives.
More than 70 silicosis-related courtroom circumstances have been filed in Victoria and Queensland, and several other extra in different states.
Many are from stonemasons suing their employers for failing to offer a protected working setting. Some are additionally going after the product’s producers, together with business titan Caesarstone.
One of these stonemasons was father-of-two Ken Parker, who was identified with silicosis in 2019 and given a life expectancy of between 5 and 10 years.
Mr Parker, who spent 18 years working in a manufacturing facility in Sydney’s west, advised Nine newspapers he was by no means warned in regards to the risks of the product.
“I used to tell people it was like working in hell,” he mentioned.
“You can’t see more than a couple of feet in front of you for the dust. It’s in your clothes, in your skin, in your eyes, car, you take it home with you. It’s just everywhere.”
Mr Parker, who reached a confidential settlement in his case, insists that till the 2018 whistleblower spoke up, business leaders claimed engineered stone was safer.
Caesarstone’s newest annual report confirmed that, in December 2021, the business large was concerned in 37 lawsuits referring to silicosis claims in Australia.
Since September 2002, the corporate’s Australian legal responsibility insurer ceased protecting newly identified silicosis-related claims. Caesarstone Australia now pays its authorized settlements from its income.
Caesarstone insists the issue is just not with their product, however relatively with poor dealing with of it.
It had included warning labels in regards to the dangers of silicosis in its security knowledge sheets for the reason that Nineties, adopted by warning labels on the slabs in 2010 and a “comprehensive master of stone” on-line studying platform in 2020, the corporate mentioned.
“Engineered stone is entirely safe to consumers in its installed form and silica only presents a risk to workers if stone is handled incorrectly,” Caesarstone mentioned in an announcement.
“The biggest problem historically has been fabricators’ compliance with regulations and enforcement of those regulations. That’s the role of employers and work safety regulators.”
An alleged cover-up
Many of the producers and handlers of engineered stone are accused, in response to a joint 60 Minutes, The Age and Sydney Morning Herald investigation, of an alleged cover-up.
Spanish Caesarstone competitor Cosentino was earlier this month discovered responsible of negligence in a Spanish courtroom. The producer’s proprietor accepted a six-month suspended jail sentence, Reuters reported, after admitting to protecting up the risks of the product.
In Australia, a 36-year-old Queensland stonemason who had beforehand spoken out about silicosis died in 2019, prompting federal authorities motion.
Within weeks of Anthony White’s demise, the federal government had launched a nationwide mud illness activity power tasked with growing an method to managing mud ailments together with silicosis.
Some reforms have been launched, however 4 years later, there nonetheless isn’t a nationwide register, nor a requirement to observe the air in workplaces that use engineered stone.
Instead, SafeWork NSW points “improvement notices” when silica mud is discovered on bogs, in lunch rooms or on workplace benches, or if staff are discovered with out correct protecting gear or coaching. The notices permit workplaces to deal with the issue inside a timeframe and with out closing down.
SafeWork NSW mentioned it had visited some 2100 silica-focused workplaces, and issued 1300 of those notices. About 900 of them had been silica-related.
Images of engineered stone factories obtained by Channel 9 confirmed workplaces lined in layers of silica, like a poisonous blanket of snow.
Have an identical story? Get in contact — chloe.whelan@news.com.au
Source: www.news.com.au
