Victoria Sets Date for Engineered Stone Ban

Victoria has joined Queensland and NSW in banning potentially deadly engineered stone from July.

The Victorian Government announced the ban on manufacturing, supplying, processing or installing engineered stone, which has been shown to cause silicous, a deadly lung disease, would come into effect on July 1.

Australian states and territories pledged to ban the product in December with South Australia and Western Australia leading the way.

The Queensland and NSW ban also takes effect on July 1.

In Victoria the removal, repair or minor modification of any engineered stone product already installed in a site before July 1 will be allowed with control requirements and additional high-risk crystalline silica work regulations in place.  

Existing laws on exposure to silica dust remain until the ban begins.

Much of the lobbying to get the state and territory governments to consider a ban has come from construction workers and their respective representative bodies including the CFMEU and others in the industry. 

Safe Work Australia released a report in August, 2023 recommending a complete ban, estimating the cost of doing so as $139.9 million for businesses and $108.2 million for governments.

▲ Engineered stone bans come into effect in the eastern states on July 1.

It also noted that 95 per cent of the businesses consulting with Safe Work on the report made it clear that they would be able to swap their business strategy to working with natural stone instead.

Engineered stone is made of crushed stone bound together by adhesive to create stone slabs.

Silicosis is a lung disease caused by exposure to silica dust. It was expected to disappear once mining and quarrying work was handled more safely with better technology.

Instead, the disease has persisted, showing up in tradespeople and associated workers as clear safety training was not communicated to whole workplaces and protective equipment not made available.

Victoria and Queensland introduced regulations and codes of practice in 2019 to act on the issue—Queensland also establishing a Dust Lung Register.

The Lung Foundation Australia said in October that it was estimated nearly 600,000 Australian workers, including stonemasons, were exposed to silica dust. 

It also predicted that silica dust exposure would cause more than 10,000 new lung cancer cases and up to 100,000 silicosis cases.

▲ A lung tissue sample with the black deposits from silicosis as seen under a microscope.

IKEA and Bunnings Warehouse have announced they will phase out engineered stone products.

Victorian WorkSafe minister Danny Pearson said a ban made sense.

“The evidence is clear that working with engineered stone is deadly—I don’t want to see any more Victorian workers die because of a kitchen benchtop,” Pearson said.

“We led the way with regulation and licensing in Victoria and now this ban will ensure workers are protected from silicosis.”