States and territories will today be urged to fast track a ban on the domestic use of engineered stone by Federal Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke.
In a meeting with his state and territory counterparts, Burke will press them to consider banning some of the manufactured stone slabs used for glossy kitchen benchtops, reports The Sydney Morning Herald.
“If a children’s toy was harming or killing kids, we’d take it off the shelves. How many thousands of workers have to die before we do something about silica products?” Burke said ahead of the meeting.
“We can’t keep delaying this. It’s time we considered a ban. I’m not willing to wait around the way people did with asbestos.”
Engineered stone is a manufactured material that contains high levels of silica crystals.
When the stone is cut, it can produce dust with those crystals which can cause the deadly lung disease silicosis.
While dry cutting the stone has recently been banned in Queensland, Victoria and New South Wales, the material itself is still legal.
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Engineered stone is commonly used in benchtops and is significantly cheaper than marble.
Today’s meeting comes after a joint investigation by a joint investigation by 60 Minutes, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age on workers exposed to silica dust.
Unions and campaigners have called engineered stone the “asbestos” of this decade.
Every state and territory has its own workplace safety laws.
Any ban they agree to won’t be necessarily on all products but those with high levels of silica.
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