On December 13, 2023, Australia’s state and federal work health and safety (WHS) ministers unanimously agreed to prohibit the use, supply, and manufacture of engineered stone, a composite material used for countertops, backsplashes, and flooring, among other uses, because of the health risks associated with the product’s use. A communique of the meeting of the Commonwealth, State and Territory Workplace Relations and Work Health and Safety ministers stated that the majority of Australian jurisdictions would have a ban in place from July 1, 2024. The federal government indicated that it would place a complementary customs prohibition on the product, which would ban it from being imported into the country.
The ministers accepted the findings and recommendations of a Decision Regulation Impact Statement produced by Safe Work Australia, the federal agency that develops national policy to improve WHS, titled Prohibition on the Use of Engineered Stone. In particular, the ministers noted:
- Rates of silicosis and silica-related diseases in Australian workers have risen substantially in recent years, with a disproportionate number of diagnoses in engineered stone workers.
- When engineered stone is processed, the dust generated has different physical and chemical properties that likely contribute to more rapid and severe disease.
- There is no scientific evidence for a safe threshold of crystalline silica content in engineered stone, or that lower silica content engineered stone is safer to work with.
- Silicosis is preventable, but WHS laws are not protecting workers due to a persistent lack of compliance with obligations and responsibilities under these laws across industry at all levels.
Following the meeting, the governments of Western Australia, Queensland, Tasmania, and New South Wales issued statements announcing and supporting the ban.
Safe Work Australia stated that it will now draft amendments to the Model WHS Regulations prohibiting the use of engineered stone. The WHS ministers asked for the amendments to be provided no later than the end of February 2024. Safe Work Australia further stated that
[t]he prohibition will not apply to the repair, minor modification, removal or disposal of engineered stone installed prior to the prohibition. For the amendments to the model WHS Regulations to apply, each jurisdiction will need to implement them separately through amendments to their jurisdictional WHS regulations.
According to the meeting communique,
[m]inisters agreed to meet again in March 2024 to settle arrangements for a transition period for contracts entered into on or before today’s date; endorse amendments to the model WHS laws to give effect to the prohibition; settle a national framework for working with previously installed engineered stone products; endorse policy parameters on stronger regulations for crystalline silica processes; and endorse a process for assessing products to be considered as exempt from the prohibition.
According to news reports, Australia is the first country in the world to announce a ban on engineered stone. The decision followed a “years-long campaign, driven by doctors, trade unions and workers, … to ban the artificial material as silicosis cases rose among those involved in its cutting and handling.” When Safe Work Australia released its report recommending the ban earlier in 2023, several businesses stated they would start to phase out their engineered stone products.
Kelly Buchanan, Law Library of Congress
December 27, 2023
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