ACT government prepared to 'go it alone' in banning engineered stone if national agreement isn't reached

www.abc.net.au 'Killing workers right now': CFMEU urges Bunnings, IKEA to stop selling engineered stone as ACT government eyes ban

The ACT government has thrown its full support behind the push for a national ban on the use of engineered stone, and says it will implement its own prohibition if the federal government doesn't take action.

A Safe Work Australia report found engineered stone poses an 'unacceptable risk to workers' and should be banned.

The ACT government says its prepared to introduce its own ban if a national agreement isn't reached.

The CFMEU is calling on retailers like Bunnings and IKEA to stop selling engineered stone products.

11 comments

When engineered stone – a popular material often used for kitchen benches – is cut, it releases a fine silica dust which can harm the lungs if inhaled.
Correct me if I am wrong but isnt the case for like, basically every type of masonry?
What makes this specific material any less of a problem when it comes to inhaling silica dust? Isn't this already just universally a serious problem for all types of stonemasonry, and its already supposed to be a solved problem by wearing appropriate PPE and having proper equipment setup to keep the stones wet during cutting, exhausting and collecting the dust, etc etc?
Or does something about engineered stone specifically make it way worse than usual compared to all other types of stones?
- Engineered stone gets singled out because it has a particularly high silica content (think ~90% silica for engineered stone compared to 30-40% for concrete). It also is commonly used in environments that require benchtop modifcations at install, make wet cutting more difficult than dry cutting when doing said modifications, and have minimal oversight, a combination that leads to people taking shortcuts with dry cutting and incorrect PPE.
  
  I'm all for protecting workers, but doesn't that mean that they are harmful to themselves if they don't wear the PPE or the employer is harming them if the PPE is not provided and wearing it is not enforced? I live in the USA and while I understand that guns kill people and should be regulated, they don't generally do so without a dipshit using it.
- It is done in the customer’s kitchen where no one supervises the workers and they do not wear protection 🤷‍♂️
  
  Why does that necessitate banning it though?
  You should ban that practice and require it gets cut with ppe and procedures, such that it's illegal to do it the way you described.
  Then if people still do it, it's on them for being a dumbass.

11 comments