Thousands of construction workers have marched through Sydney to call for a ban on engineered stone.
CFMEU union workers marched from Belmore Park on Elizabeth Street and continued through Hyde Park and into Macquarie Street.
The rally was in protest of engineered stone being used on worksites across the country.
The product is popular for use in kitchen benchtops but when cut can increase the risk to workers from silicosis, a lung disease caused by inhaling small particles of silica dust, according to the union’s Stop the Killer Stone campaign.
Marchers demanded an immediate ban on all engineered and human-made stone products by the state and federal governments.
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“The high toxicity of the silica-based stone has delivered a death sentence on hundreds of workers, many of them very young,” the CFMEU said in a Facebook post.
“Cheap imported kitchen and bathroom benchtops are not worth a human life.”
NSW Premier Chris Minns told 9News he would address the union’s concerns when a national report into the matter is handed down tomorrow.
Teenagers can start working in the construction industry under an apprenticeship as young as 15.
