Clearing the air on hidden silica risks
Proper safety measures for workers around airborne crystallized silica are needed for workers around engineered stone, concrete and brick cutting. Photo: StockCake
A national debate around engineered stone has caused a local health and safety expert to share her concerns around crystalline silica.
LBT Workplace Safety’s Laraine Brooke-Taylor says that the impact of silicosis has become especially clear to her after a MinEx workshop on its dangers.
“Silica in engineered stone especially, but concrete and brick as well, can pose significant health risks when cut, ground, or sawed by releasing tiny particles that evade and can’t be expelled by the body’s natural airway defences”, she says.
“Businesses are legally required to inform their workers of both safety and health risks, but when people think health and safety they instantly think of the active safety on workplaces to direct health, and much less about the long-term health risks like silicosis”
Silica dust is particularly dangerous because it is not visible to the naked eye and causes silicosis - a disease that hardens the lungs and causes severe respiratory problems.
New Zealand’s Employers and Manufacturers’ Association, the Council of Trade Unions and MinEx – the extraction sector’s health and safety council - back a ban on engineered stone, following Australia last year.
And while for Laraine the health and safety aspect of silicosis prevention with ventilators and masks is easy to follow, she says a “she’ll be right” mentality cannot apply in the case of crystalline silica. “Proper engineering controls, like ventilators, and personal protective equipment, but workers need to be informed about the risks so they can take personal responsibility for their protection.