dust – SafetyAtWorkBlog

All safety is political. It always has been

My great uncle dug into coal mine tailings with his bare hands to try and rescue the school children and teachers buried during the Aberfan disaster. His own grandchildren died. Both of my grandfathers suffered from lives spent underground; they both died young, one from lung cancer and silicosis.

For me, all safety is political. It always has been. It’s not party-political – but it can be. It’s political in the sense that all decisions in every aspect of our lives are a function of power and authority.

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European support for Australia’s ban on engineered stone

The latest edition of the European Trade Union Institute’s HesaMag features articles on Artificial Intelligence, but the go-to article for me was the magazine’s perspective on Australia’s ban on engineered stone.

We often learn more about ourselves by reading how others see us, so I was keen to read the perspective of sociologist Catherine Cavalin and historian Alfredo Menendez Navarro.

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“If you don’t sound the alarm, who will?” Matt Peacock and work health and safety

Prominent investigative journalist, Matt Peacock, has died from pancreative cancer. Few of us are lucky enough to save people’s lives, some of us change the world. Matt did both. He was never an occupational health and safety (OHS) specialist but his impact on the world of work, especially in Australia was profound and, probably, unmatched.

In 2019, I was helping the (then) Safety Institute of Australia with its conferences. I approached Matt to speak at the 2019 national conference dinner in Sydney, hoping he would be provocative. (Here is an article from that time) He shocked many in the audience when saying:

“..my message tonight is that if you were all doing your jobs properly, then I wouldn’t have had anything to report on in the first place.”

He did not let up on his challenging criticism that night. Below is the full transcript of his presentation, available for the first time.

Kevin Jones

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Engineered stone in the business media

The Australian Financial Review (AFR) is a newspaper written for and about business, so worker safety and health is usually depicted as a nuisance to be addressed only when one absolutely must. However, its coverage of engineered stone products is notably skewed.

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Caesarstone has a point in its identification of the root cause for silicosis deaths

Engineered stone manufacturers are, understandably, not happy with Australia’s proposed ban on their silicosis-generating products. Some home builders have also expressed dissatisfaction. They are often ignoring the reason for the ban – the unnecessary deaths of workers – although at least one argument has merit.

In an article by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Caesarstone, the major supplier of engineered stone to Australia, identified what it sees as the real causes of silicosis risks:

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Australia is the first nation to ban engineered stone due to worker health concerns

The heads of Australian work health and safety authorities have decided to ban engineered stone from the middle of 2024. Some will seed this as a win for the trade union movement ( the unions certainly will), but many occupational health and safety and industrial hygiene professionals have been leading the way in obtaining the research evidence that made this decision such an easy one to make.

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Engineered stone reveals the reality behind OHS decisions

Caesarstone Asia Pacific managing director David Cullen told the Australian Financial Review (AFR – paywalled) on October 27, 2023, that:

“A full ban on the use of engineered stone would double the cost of benchtops..”

So? That seems to be enough of a reason to continue to allow the use of a product that is causing a large number of preventable deaths in Australia and elsewhere??!!

A stronger argument may be that the occupational health and safety (OHS) management of the cutting of engineered stone has failed.

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Category: dust

All safety is political. It always has been

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European support for Australia’s ban on engineered stone

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“If you don’t sound the alarm, who will?” Matt Peacock and work health and safety

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Engineered stone in the business media

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Caesarstone has a point in its identification of the root cause for silicosis deaths

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Australia is the first nation to ban engineered stone due to worker health concerns

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Engineered stone reveals the reality behind OHS decisions

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