Banning artificial stones could prevent 100 lung cancers and 1,000 cases of silicosis, where dust leaves scars on the lungs

A well-fitting respirator can reduce the risk. Credit: Shutterstock

Silica dust is a very fine dust that is produced when products such as bricks, concrete and pavers are cut or drilled. Artificial stone, which is used primarily for kitchen countertops, is a very strong source of silica dust.

Inhaling this dust into the lungs can cause severe long-term damage. This can lead to difficulty breathing, scarring of the lungs (silicosis) and lung cancer.

In our recently published report, we estimate that without action, Australian workers will develop over 10,000 lung cancers in the future and nearly 104,000 cases of silicosis over their lifetime due to exposure to silica dust. This is about 1% of all future lung cancers in the Australian adult population.

However, banning artificial stone would reduce silica exposure and could prevent 100 lung cancers and nearly 1,000 cases of silicosis over the lifetime of these workers.

The reappearance of the old disease

Silica dust is a serious hazard in Australian workplaces. About 7% of Australian workers are at risk of inhaling it. Exposure is most common in miners and construction workers.

Over the past 60 years, silicosis has been extremely rare in Australia. Due to the increasing use of artificial stones, we are now seeing the re-emergence of this terrible disease.

In response to the re-emergence of silicosis, the Australian government established a task force to improve the health and safety of those working with silica dust. His final report, from June 2021, recommends further analysis of how best to protect artificial stone workers.

This is now underway, with Safe Work Australia releasing a regulatory impact statement for consultation. This Statement discusses options for reducing silica exposure and their costs over the next ten years.

Safe Work Australia concluded these measures only needed to save about five people per year from silicosis for this option to be cost-effective.

While this is a good start, there is still room for more. A ban on artificial stone was one of the recommendations suggested by the task force but is not currently supported by the government and is not being considered by Safe Work Australia.

Assess the loss

To estimate losses from silica dust in the workplace, we use a method that calculates how many additional cases of illness will occur in workers exposed to silica dust in one year—2016 in this case.

We use previous exposure surveys and recent reports from New South Wales and Victoria to estimate how many workers are exposed to silica dust nationally.

We then modeled how many cases of lung cancer and silicosis would occur over the lifetime of these workers.

We then looked at possible ways to reduce exposure to silica dust, including wet cutting, reducing worker access to dusty areas, using good quality and properly fitted respirators, and banning artificial stones.

While this modeling has not been published in a peer-reviewed journal, it has been peer-reviewed by others in the field.

Reduce damage

We found banning artificial stones prevented 100 lung cancers and nearly 1,000 cases of silicosis.

We are also looking at other control measures that could be implemented in the interim.

Setting up an exclusion zone around the area where the artificial stone is cut, using a properly fitted respirator, wetting the artificial stone when cutting it, and using dust extraction on the tool when cutting artificial stone can prevent cases of lung cancer and silicosis, but not as much as a complete ban. .

Unfortunately, bans on silica dust in other industries such as mining are not possible. However, exposure can be reduced. Stopping workers from entering areas near crushers at the mine site would prevent 750 lung cancers and nearly 7,500 cases of silicosis.

If we were able to reduce exposure in the mining industry to that of the general population, we could save more than 2,300 lung cancers and over 20,000 cases of silicosis.

Reducing silica dust will save lives

Overall, ensuring compliance with engineering controls and respiratory equipment could prevent more than 400 workers from developing the two terrible diseases.

These cases can only be prevented if there is 100% compliance with control measures. This is a much higher level of compliance than we currently see in Australian workplaces.

A licensing system for an artificial stone business like the one currently underway in Victoria may improve compliance, but the effect remains to be seen.

However, if we ban artificial stone, we could save up to 700 more young workers from this disease. If we try to eliminate exposure to silica dust in other industries, we can prevent more diseases.

Clearly, more needs to be done to protect our workers from this ultimately preventable lung disease.

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10,000 Australian workers will get lung cancer from silica dust, study finds

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Provided by The Conversation

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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