A doctor who was vital to sounding the alarm on the emerging silicosis epidemic five years ago has described the response of Australian governments to the deadly threat to workers as “tantamount to industrial manslaughter”.
Graeme Edwards, a former member of the national dust diseases taskforce and a Royal College of Physicians (RACP) fellow, said the Commonwealth had repeatedly missed deadlines for a lifesaving database to combat the dust disease despite agreeing three years ago to create one.
Dr Graeme Edwards was one of the first clinicians to warn of the silicosis epidemic back in 2018.Credit:Paul Harris
“The delays in implementing the changes necessary to the work, health and safety framework is, in my personal opinion, tantamount to industrial manslaughter being manifested by government,” Edwards said, stressing his statement stood apart from the RACP’s position.
A joint investigation by The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and 60 Minutes revealed workers exposed to silica dust were battling the debilitating symptoms of the lung disease silicosis while state-based regulators failed to effectively police workplaces to guard against the dangers associated with ingesting dust from engineered stone.
Edwards brought the issue of silicosis to the attention of the Queensland and federal governments in 2018 after detecting a high proportion of silicosis cases through his Brisbane clinic.
He was later appointed to the national taskforce by then-health minister Greg Hunt, and in 2021 the taskforce recommended a ban on engineered stone products by mid-2024 unless there was a measurable improvement in safety.
“Government knows the current laws are not working, they are not protecting the lives of people in those occupations … they have not enacted the legislative reform necessary to protect Australian workers,” Edwards said.
“They might want to divert attention away from themselves and put it on those business operators who do the wrong thing, and that is important … but it should not detract from the fact that they themselves are fostering an environment that creates industrial manslaughter.”
Edwards is among experts and industry members who are advocating for a national licensing scheme to track the importation and distribution of engineered stone in Australia, to stop it falling into the hands of “shonky operators”.
“If they can’t do it, then they should ban the importation of engineered stone,” he said.
Graeme Edwards in his Brisbane clinic. He described the collective inertia of governments in failing to respond to silicosis as “tantamount to industrial manslaughter”.Credit:Paul Harris
Federal and state workplace relations ministers will meet on Tuesday to discuss banning engineered stone with high crystalline silica content – commonly used in kitchen benchtops – as part of a raft of measures to limit exposure to the lethal dust.
The RACP, the Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand, and the Australasian Faculty of Occupational and Environmental Medicine have also jointly called for a respiratory disease registry and nationally enforceable rules regarding silica dust safety.
RACP spokesman Dr Warren Harrex said if a ban on engineered stone “is the only thing that is discussed [at Tuesday’s meeting], then we’re really missing the chance to properly reform the sector to prevent further silicosis deaths”.
He said exposure for tunnel workers, construction workers and miners also needed addressing.
Queensland Industrial Relations Minister Grace Grace has been the only state or territory minister to overtly call for a ban on engineered stone imports in the lead-up to Tuesday’s meeting, echoing the demands of the union movement and federal Labor senator Tony Sheldon.
After NSW Labor leader Chris Minns pledged to ban the most dangerous engineered stone products by 2024, NSW Customer Service Minister Victor Dominello said he would be strongly advocating for the discussion on the ban to be brought before then, with all parties engaged as soon as possible.
“Given importation bans can only be implemented by the federal government, a national registration and licensing scheme is the most effective path forward to address this serious issue,” Dominello said.
Caesarstone, the dominant supplier of manufactured stone benchtops in Australia, took out full-page advertisements in national newspapers over the weekend saying the Israel-based company has advocated for stronger oversight by work-safety bodies, “but little progress has been made”.
The advertisements argue against a total ban on engineered stone, as tunnelling and construction involving natural stone would also need to be banned as well to solve the issue of silicosis.
A Victorian government spokesperson said the state had some of the toughest regulations in the country, but there was more to be done after mandating a licensing scheme in November and offering free screenings for all stonemasons.
Queensland will implement a code of practice to minimise silica exposure this year, while Western Australia has banned the dry-cutting of stone and ramped up workplace inspections. South Australia is considering a licensing scheme and a ban on high-silica products.
Worksafe Victoria publishes data of accepted workers’ compensation claims relating to silicosis, which has shown three so far in 2023, 30 last year, 77 in 2021 and 90 in 2020. There have been 350 claims in total since 1988.
According to the latest data from NSW’s workplace insurer, icare, 64 new cases of silicosis were diagnosed in the 2021-22 financial year, 57 the previous year, 107 in 2019-20, and 40 in 2018-19.
The annual report for Queensland’s lung diseases register says 40 new cases of silicosis were recorded in 2021-22.
Health and occupational experts have decried the lack of uniform and up-to-date record-keeping on silicosis between different states and territories.
Despite the former government agreeing to a national registry in early 2020 – and a Department of Health website, since updated, saying the resource would be up and running by late last year – Commonwealth legislation is still yet to be introduced.
A departmental spokesperson said the government was assessing feedback on an exposure draft for a bill on the registry, which was released in November 2022.
“The revised legislation is expected to be introduced in the second half of 2023,” the spokesperson said.
Edwards said a registry would provide critical intelligence on trends relating to silicosis. He said extraordinary achievements had been made regarding silicosis awareness in recent years, “but I can’t help think it’s not enough”.
“The reason we gave the July 2024 timeline in the taskforce report is we recognise it takes time for change to happen, but allowing that process of change to drag on unnecessarily is killing Australian workers,” he said.
Tuesday’s meeting of workplace relations ministers will also address industrial manslaughter following previous, unsuccessful calls to create nationally consistent laws.
Construction union national secretary Zach Smith said his organisation has been pushing for strong industrial manslaughter laws as a deterrent against “the kind of morally bankrupt conduct that leads to silica deaths”.
“The silicosis crisis killing Australian workers is a form of industrial manslaughter that shouldn’t go unpunished. Bosses responsible for workplace deaths including from deadly dust diseases should face jail time and massive fines,” he said.
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