Stonemason with terminal lung disease says government must act on silica dust

A tradie who helped build Parliament House has made an urgent plea for change after being diagnosed with an incurable disease.

A stonemason with terminal lung disease who was exposed to toxic dust while helping build Parliament House in Canberra is urging the government to act immediately to prevent others from suffering the same fate.

Frank Scott, 52, requires the use of an oxygen tank 24 hours a day and is on the waiting list for a double lung transplant after being diagnosed with silicosis and scleroderma.

Mr Scott became sick after breathing in crystalline silica dust while using engineered stone from the early 2000s onwards and during earlier projects that involved dry-cutting granite and sandstone.

“I was devastated, to be honest for many reasons, but one of them was the fact that I couldn’t work anymore because I love my work. I’m passionate about it and I really enjoy it,” he said of his 2008 diagnosis.

Silica dust, which can lead to the potentially deadly disease silicosis as well as lung cancer, is produced by different building products, but it is most potent in engineered stone.

The artificial material is more durable than marble and granite, but it contains up to 95 per cent silica.

Frank Scott, 52, has incurable lung disease after being exposed to silica dust during his stonemasonry career. Picture: Supplied

Mr Scott has written to federal government ministers urging them to legislate a national licensing scheme for engineered stone.

Such a scheme would only allow the supply of engineered stone to businesses that had demonstrated compliance with tough safety standards such as wet-cutting and personal protective equipment.

“I’d say to them, please get on top of this to save tradespeople’s lives and their families the grief that they’re going through,” Mr Scott said.

“It’s really affected my family and the people really close to me. They’ve gone through hell too. And that’s the worst feeling ever – having people upset.”

In his letter to MPs, Mr Scott asked governments to work together to phase out and eventually ban engineered stone in Australia.

“This was achieved with asbestos and can be achieved with silica, too,” he wrote.

Researchers and unions have also called for engineered stone to be banned altogether, with Curtin University modelling suggesting more than half a million Australian workers are being exposed to silica dust.

The study, commissioned by the Australian Council of Trade Unions and published in July, predicted more than 10,000 Australians would develop lung cancer and up to 103,000 silicosis after being exposed at work.

The previous Coalition government set up a national dust diseases taskforce to investigate ways to limit exposure to silica, as an increasing number of young, otherwise healthy people were diagnosed with silicosis.

One of the seven recommendations made by the taskforce in its final report handed down in July 2021 was the establishment of a licensing scheme for engineered stone.

Mr Scott says he was exposed to silica dust while working on the construction of Parliament House in Canberra.

The taskforce also said engineered stone products must be banned from 2024 if its recommendations fail to result in significant improvements to worker safety.

Health Minister Mark Butler said on Monday the commonwealth and states and territories were still working on their response to the taskforce’s recommendations.

The response includes implementing $11m in federal government funding for health initiatives to combat silicosis, including setting up a national registry for respiratory diseases acquired at work.

Mr Butler said the government would continue to work with unions to address health issues that arose from exposure to silica dust.

Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke has flagged he will discuss silicosis and the calls to ban high-silica content engineered stone with his state and territory counterparts at a meeting early next year.

An Employment and Workplace Relations Department spokesman said Safe Work Australia was developing a regulation impact statement on managing silica dust, including examining the possibility of a licensing scheme for engineered stone.

“The outcomes of this analysis will be provided to work health and safety (WHS) ministers for decision in early 2023,” he said.

Because of the way Australia’s WHS laws operate, any restrictions on or licensing of engineered stone made under these laws would need to be developed by Safe Work Australia.

The changes would need to be agreed to by two-thirds of the nation’s ministers who are in charge of work health and safety and then legislated separately in each jurisdiction.

Victoria is the only state not to follow the national WHS laws. It adopted a licensing scheme to regulate engineered stone late last year.

Health Minister Mark Butler says governments are working on their response to the taskforce’s recommendations. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

Roger Singh from Shine Lawyers, who represented Mr Scott in his civil case against his former employer, said governments had already been too slow to act.

Mr Singh said a licensing scheme was needed immediately and that engineered stone should ultimately be banned.

“To me the time for investigation, debate and ongoing analysis should be over,” he said.

“We’ve had case after case after case of workers who are now going to die at the age of 40 or younger.”

Mr Scott handled and cut hundreds of slabs of engineered stone for kitchen and bathroom benchtop installation after engineered stone entered the market in the early 2000s.

At the beginning of his 32-year career, Mr Scott worked dry-grinding granite slabs for the company contracted to help construct the new Parliament House in Canberra in the 1980s.

He sued his employer in 2020 and says the civil case resulted in a “positive outcome” before it went to trial.

Mr Scott now faces a nerve-racking and indeterminate wait for new lungs after clearing the final hurdle for approval for the transplant list in Queensland.

He can’t carry his shopping into the house and he gets breathless putting petrol in his car at the service station.

“All these little things you just take for granted really knock someone around who’s got sh-t lungs,” he said.

“After my transplant, I’m really looking forward to kicking the football around with my grandchildren.”

Originally published as Stonemason with terminal lung disease says government must act on silica dust