The death trap that lurks beneath our city

The dust from cutting engineered stone benchtops and vanities is killing Australian tradies.See all 9 stories.

Cutting the ribbon on the M4-M8 link as part of the $16.8 billion WestConnex motorway project, NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet applauded the great social benefit of building tunnels and motorways to move people more quickly around Sydney.

“Ultimately, it is all about families,” Perrottet told a press conference in January. “It’s all about making sure people can spend more time with their families and less time on travelling and that’s what this project is all about.”

But below the tunnel entrance on which he stood, at least 500 tunnellers have been exposed to unsafe levels of silica, the Australian Workers Union (AWU) claims, and a further 500 were exposed to reduced levels of silica dust, which, if inhaled regularly, can cause silicosis, an incurable work-related illness that results in slow suffocation.

A joint investigation by The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and 60 Minutes has revealed the surge in the ancient work-related lung disease silicosis doesn’t just come from engineered stone, but the tunnels interweaving our roads, built by some of the world’s biggest construction giants as part of a state and federal government-fuelled infrastructure boom.

Like the engineered stone sector, workers’ health is being put at risk by companies cutting corners, lax regulation and a failure of the lawmakers to make uniform reforms across the states.

Sydney is built on sandstone that contains up to 90 per cent crystalline silica, which is dangerous to humans when particles are inhaled.

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet at the ribbon cutting ceremony to mark the opening of the WestConnex M4-M8 link in January.Credit: Kate Geraghty

Asked if he was aware of the tunnellers being exposed to silica dust, Perrottet said: “I was not, but that’s obviously something that SafeWork works very closely with contractors in relation to.

“I remember a number of years ago challenges in relation to silicosis had arisen on work sites that SafeWork had been actively engaged in. That work has not stopped but, ultimately in light of the revelations, more needs to be done. This should be dealt with at a national level where we have a consistent framework and approach across all states and territories.”

A study released last year by Curtin University has estimated that nationally there are more than 275,000 workers, including tunnellers, miners, construction workers and stonemasons exposed to high levels of crystalline silica. It predicts up to 103,000 workers will be diagnosed with silicosis.

Professor Deborah Yates, a respiratory physician, has treated an increasing number of tunnellers for silicosis. “Engineered stone is a small part of the whole problem, and Australia has a very big, dusty environment, which it needs to deal with,” she said.

Professor Deborah Yates says ‘we have more silica out there than we had asbestos.’Credit: Dominic Lorrimer

“I don’t want to get people worried. When you actually work with it properly, and you have it well controlled, it’s not a problem. But potentially, when you look at what’s going on in Australia, we have more silica out there than we had asbestos. So, potentially, this could be a really big problem. The problem at the moment is we’re not recognising that the diseases are actually linked to silica exposure. We’re not able to pull the numbers together to find out exactly how much silica is contributing towards the healthcare burden. But it’s going to be a big one.”

‘Too much to take in’

Craig Bennett is one of a growing number of tunnellers being diagnosed with silicosis. In September 2020, he was advised by his doctor that he had advanced silicosis.

“I broke down in tears in that doctor’s office,” he said. “I was at a crossroads. I didn’t know what to do. It was just too much to take in.”

Craig Bennett is proud of his career as a tunneller but has contracted silicosis.Credit: Paul Harris

When Bennett was advised in September 2020 that he needed to quit tunnelling as a result of his silicosis diagnosis, he was shattered.

He says he hasn’t told his young daughter about his diagnosis. “I don’t know how to tell her. I will one day, but yeah…”

Bennett began his career as a tunneller in 1993, working on some of the country’s biggest projects, including the nine-kilometre NorthConnex twin tunnel, Melbourne’s EastLink project, WestConnex and the Eastern Distributor. He worked long shifts, sometimes 12 hours a day, in hot, dusty conditions with questionable ventilation and inadequate protective equipment such as a mask.

“When I started I wore track pants and a rugby jersey … and in the early days we were given one paper mask a shift,” he said.

“When you got to the surface and you looked at it, it was black. I mean, when you pulled it apart you could see that [the dust]. It penetrated it.”

Tunneller Craig Bennett has silicosis but continues to work. Credit: Paul Harris

It is a chilling reality that more and more workers are facing; a preventable reality if proper safety conditions had been in place. While safety standards have vastly improved from the early days, they are still far from perfect.

The Victorian model

Kate Cole, the immediate past-president of the Australian Institute of Occupational Hygienists, says there are still issues in tunnelling with uncontrolled dry cutting of natural stone, such as sandstone, and concrete, as well as inadequate health monitoring and insufficient air monitoring.

She said Victoria introduced new regulations in 2021 that covered tunnelling. They clearly defined high-risk crystalline silica work and focused on planning and risk assessment and training required for workers. Cole said NSW doesn’t have the same specific provisions.

“Tunnels can be built safely but there needs to be consistent regulations in place across the country,” she said.

Companies also have to take it more seriously.

A tunneller with silicosis who is currently working on a tunnel project in one of the main cities, and who asked not to have his identity revealed for fear of a backlash from his employer, said he had seen a drop in safety standards across the industry in the past couple of years. “The big problem is it costs a lot to have protections in place.”

To bring dust levels down requires clean-up crews, better ventilators and regular air monitoring. If a ventilator gets blocked, work should stop until it is fixed, he said. “It’s not a big focus because it would hurt the financials.”

He said there was air testing of the dust in the tunnels going on, but it was being manipulated because the regulations allowed companies to do it internally. “I have seen it on jobs, and I’m seeing it now, where they get workers to put dust monitors on and sent to places where there isn’t much dust to ensure it meets the workplace exposure standard,” he said.

A survey conducted last March of almost 400 AWU members across industries exposed to crystalline silica dust, including tunnels, revealed that almost three-quarters reported silica dust exposure at least once a week.

One in five said their workplace didn’t provide them with an appropriate face mask and 40 per cent said the site they worked at wasn’t properly ventilated to avoid dust build-up. Only 23 per cent reported that water was used for the suppression of dust.

Shockingly, 12 per cent said they were aware of silicosis cases in their workplace.

The AWU conducted work health and safety visits under section 117 of the Work Health and Safety (WHS) Act after workers started raising concerns.

Using a dust monitor device, union organisers measured the level of microscopic dust particles in the air.

“We know that workers in the WestConnex tunnels have been exposed to silica at large amounts.”Credit: Kate Geraghty

In March last year, an AWU organiser did a series of three 15-minute tests with the dust monitor inside the Rozelle Interchange, which is a separate part of the WestConnex project from the one opened by the NSW premier. It showed readings that were significantly higher than the workplace exposure standard read over the course of a 12-hour shift.

AWU national secretary Dan Walton said construction giant John Holland, which is responsible for the day-to-day running of the Rozelle Interchange, refused to acknowledge the union tests, refused to hand over their own tests and continue to refuse to allow the AWU back on the site to do more testing.

“John Holland allowed us onto the site the first time, of which we took three readings, all of which were massively over the exposure limits. We went back a second time, took more samples, again, over the exposure limits. The third time we turned up, they said, ‘You cannot come on site with that equipment to test for dust in this site,’” he said.

Walton said each time the union had been able to use the air monitoring device on John Holland jobs, it showed unsafe levels of dust in the air. “Yet, the company is more interested in protecting its bottom line, saving a few dollars, and turning a blind eye to just how unsafe it is,” he said.

“We know that workers in the WestConnex tunnels have been exposed to silica at large amounts. We know there’s been consistent problems with dust throughout that job. Yet the company have done very little to protect those workers, to let those workers know, and to make sure that those issues are never repeated again.”

John Holland is owned by one of the world’s biggest contractors, the Chinese government-owned China Communications Construction, which is valued at $25 billion on Hong Kong’s stock exchange. It operates across Australia, building everything from hospitals, roads to commercial buildings.

This investigation asked John Holland whether unions should be given access to monitor air. It responded in a statement: “The Rozelle Interchange Project implements all necessary controls to ensure the health and safety of its workforce.

“Daily ventilation and air quality measurements are conducted in line with project-specific work health and safety systems. This includes water suppression and multiple dust ventilators close to the source.

“The safety of our people and contractors is our number one priority. We comply with all relevant workplace health and safety regulations to ensure air monitoring on all of our sites, including the Rozelle Interchange Project, is of the highest possible standard.”

But Walton said most tunnels around the country could lift their game when it comes to worker safety.

Giant fans will push air through the Rozelle interchange’s tunnels.Credit: Brook Mitchell

“We know that in most tunnels around the country, monitoring is not up to scratch,” he said.

“We know the extraction is not up to scratch. We know [water] suppression and protective equipment is not up to scratch. This is a big problem in this industry. There is a race on to build more tunnels than we ever have before, and as a consequence, corners have been cut and that is all because they wanna get the job done. They want to make as much money as they can.”

Video footage of union officials entering the Rozelle Interchange earlier this month suggests that dust control measures weren’t working. In one video the excavation machines known as road headers are cutting into the sandstone, which contains up to 90 per cent silica, a level carcinogenic to humans, and the ventilation machine isn’t capable of collecting the majority of dust and is escaping into the passageways. The dust will eventually settle on workers’ clothing, plant and equipment, and vehicles that enter and exit the project. A safer way would be to use multiple engineering control measures such as the inclusion of water suppression at the source of the dust.

Another video captures a union official at the same project being denied access to use a dust monitor to measure the air.

This masthead trawled through thousands of documents from SafeWork NSW which showed issues with some tunnel projects in NSW relating to silica.

Wendy, one of two tunnel boring machines at Chatswood, starts tunnelling south towards Blues Point in 2019.Credit: Louise Kennerley

One document reveals that SafeWork NSW is notified in March 2021 of a work, health and safety issue with Metro Tunnels in Chatswood, which is managed by UGL, a subsidiary of Spanish-owned CIMIC Group. “Workers may be at risk in the workplace due to alleged inadequate provision, maintenance or use of required personal protective equipment appropriate to undertake allocated work - workers allegedly exposed to silica via contaminated clothing,” SafeWork noted.

Instead of inspecting the site, it told the company “an inspector would not be attending the workplace to make further inquiries.” Instead, it recommended that the site “conduct an assessment of the issue/s raised to determine whether you are meeting your work health and safety obligations.”

CIMIC said in a statement: “We comply with all relevant work health and safety laws, regulations and Australian standards.”

In another case, a request for service was lodged with the regulator in August 2022 in relation to the Arncliffe tunnel site which is managed by a joint venture, warning that “personnel monitoring of respirable silica dust of tunnel workers showing exceedance of 500 per cent of occupational exposure standards 11/08/2022.”

Bennett is still working in the industry because he can’t afford to quit. He said his current employer, who he has asked to keep confidential, provided him with high level protective equipment when he goes down into the tunnels. “It’s kind of like what a fireman would wear in a fire or a welder or a boilermaker tradesperson would wear when he’s welding … It has a battery life span of 12 hours and I charge it every day,” he said.

Last August, Bennett hired Maurice Blackburn to take legal action against some of his former employers, alleging they owed him a duty of care to keep him safe.

“I’m coming up to 30 years underground and it’s always been a passion of mine,” I can put my head up and say, ‘I built that. I played a huge part in that’.”

But he says it needs to be safe.