Gold Coast company Trieste Health launches deFENDer – a portable solution to cutting stone and doing other high-risk activities safely on site

A Gold Coast company is hoping its portable solution to cutting stone safely on site is embraced by an industry reeling from the silicosis crisis.

A GOLD Coast company is hoping its portable solution to cutting stone safely on site is embraced by an industry reeling from the silicosis crisis.

Last year a State Government audit found 15 terminal cases out of 98 workers who had contracted silicosis, an incurable and often fatal lung disease caused by breathing-in dust containing crystalline silica found in manufactured stone.

Eighteen months ago a ban came into effect for dry cutting but problems remain with doing work on site, where is it more difficult to control the risk.

Paul Brennan is the CEO of Chevron Island-based Trieste Health Technology, which in 2020 will launch its national onsite health control business.

Paul Brennan, Kristen Brennan and Josh Madrers of Trieste Health Technology work on identifying high-risk areas at businesses and mitigating exposure to those risks, such as silicosis. Picture: TIM MARSDEN

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The new venture by Mr Brennan, a construction industry veteran who previously worked at fit-out and design firm Scarchi & Boston, is centred around its mobile solution to fumes, exhaust, noise and dust, called the ­deFENDer.

The deFENDer is a mobile container providing a safe and controlled environment, via its extraction system, for activities such as cutting stone.

Trieste Health will embark on a road show next year to market the product to health and safety managers around Australia.

It is hoping to manufacture 50 deFENDers next year, 100 in the second year and 200 by the third.

Gold Coast stonemason Anthony White, died from the lung disease silicosis. Picture by Luke Marsden.

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The containers, which can be “clicked” together to make larger systems, come in 10 and 20ft sizes.

“We came across the problem (of cutting stone on site) after the dry cutting ban came into effect 18 months ago,” Mr Brennan said.

“We were physically stopped on site. We said: ‘There is a substantial issue here. What can we do about it’?”

Mr Brennan said workers on the 9500 active construction sites at any one time in Australia have tended to come up with “ad hoc” solutions to controlling dust.

“The workers will believe they are doing the right thing by trying to control it and they can see they are collecting the dust,” he said.

High profile American legal clerk Erin Brockovich looks on as Tanya Moratti speaks at Shine Lawyers in Brisbane, Monday, October 21, 2019. Shine Lawyers have been lobbying at national and state levels for stricter regulations in the stone industry in reaction to one of their clients dying from silicosis.

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“But silica has still escaped and that is where the problem is. Silica is 100 times smaller than a grain of hair and is virtually invisible.”

Mr Brennan said it had taken 18 months of work, including collaborating with engineers and occupational hygienists, to come up with the deFENDer.

“What we have done is not new technology,” he said.

“We have condensed (the technology) down to a smaller version.”

The container has a system to pump in water and suck out all the dust and silica via its extraction system during and after cutting.

Mr Brennan said there were two drivers of change in the industry. One is the new legislation being rolled out at a state and federal level that deals with rules for work on site that requires dust control.

“Another factor is a change in the attitude of workers. When they see someone working with dust they get up them and get cranky and ask them to get it away from them,” he said. “Silica has changed the attitude of even older builders.”