The ban, to apply from July, is the result of years of campaigning on the issue by unions, health professionals and debilitated workers themselves, appalled by the rates of accelerated silicosis striking down workers, often when they are in the prime of life.
The culprit is crystalline silica invading the lungs of those working with the benchtop material which has become increasingly fashionable in recent years. It has been called the asbestos of the 2020s.
Those affected may not have symptoms initially but over time it can cause shortness of breath, chest pain, coughing, and tiredness. This worsens as the disease progresses and can result in premature death.
What has alarmed those observing the disease in engineered stone workers is how quickly workers can be affected by the condition.
An Australia epidemiologist Prof Lin Fitschi describes the Australian situation as a disastrous combination of poor practice and a terrible product.
She is not of the view, as some in the industry are, that the dust can be brought down to an acceptable level with wet cutting. The Council of Trade Unions here supports a similar ban to Australia’s on working with all engineered products apart from managing or removing material already installed.
The Australian decision will mean there will be more pressure for change here.
So far, the New Zealand approach has been patchy.
Here, an estimated 60,000 engineered stone slabs are imported each year with 132 workplaces cutting them up for benchtops for kitchens and bathrooms.
Since 2019 WorkSafe, ACC and the Ministry of Health have been working to identify those at risk of developing the disease.
WorkSafe has been visiting workplaces dealing with engineered stone, but despite finding most were not compliant with protective measures for silica dust inhalation, it has been slow to reassess them.
By the end of July, only 17 had been revisited and some of them were still not up to scratch. All the 80 highest risk places were not expected to have been reassessed until the end of the year.
The Accelerated Silicosis Assessment Pathway was established in 2020, designed to ensure there was a timely, consistent, and comprehensive process to identify and assess people at risk of accelerated silicosis.
In an update on the situation in September, the Ministry of Health said indicative data from ACC showed 190 claims had been lodged for assessment since 2019.
New Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden, who is also Act New Zealand’s deputy leader, has been reported as saying the government is preparing advice on this for her to consider. She expected this would take into account the latest analysis and evidence from Australia.
As the ministry update says, accelerated silicosis is a serious and preventable lung disease.
Given the coalition government’s reluctance to follow through with bold action on preventable lung disease caused by smoking, and its acceptance of the Big Tobacco line on that, can we be confident we will get anywhere near a ban here?
It is worth noting Act’s coalition agreement refers to reforming health and safety law and regulations.
There is nothing spelled out on that in the agreement, but the Act policy is the current Health and Safety at Work Act is unfairly weighted against employers. It wants employees found to have acted in a wilfully irresponsible manner on workplace health and safety to bear some personal responsibility "and can be immediately terminated" (we trust that termination refers to their employment and not the employee).
Either we need to brace ourselves for more blather about choice and personal responsibility and claims the industry can be made safe, or the new government will surprise us by showing a commitment to public health and follow the Australian lead.
