Popular kitchen item has been banned from importation into Australia

Australians will no longer be able to import this everyday kitchen item into the country from January 1, 2025 after the government announced it was banned.

Fake stone products will no longer be able to enter the country, taking the domestic stoppage on the deadly-illness causing item to a brand new level.

Engineered stone bench tops, slabs and panels importation will be banned from January 1, 2025, the Albanese Government announced on Wednesday.

Engineered stone is a marble and granite alternative that’s hugely popular in renovations and new builds, particularly on items such as kitchen benches.

However, since 2015, the fake stone has been linked to a devastating health epidemic due to its high silica content — particularly an incurable and deadly lung condition called silicosis.

Symptoms include a persistent cough, shortness of breath and difficulty breathing, which can appear from a few weeks to many years after exposure to silica dust.

Engineered stone bench tops, slabs and panels importation will be banned from January 1. Picture: istock

Last year, Safe Work Australia pushed for a total ban on engineered stone due to this with fears it would become the next asbestos issue when it comes to construction worker health.

It resulted in engineered stone being banned in Australia on July 1, 2024, and from September 1, 2024, builders needed a permit to work with legacy engineered stone — the world’s first domestic ban on use, supply and manufacturing of the item.

The ban on importation will see $32.1 million over two years given to the Australian Border Force to implement the prohibition.

Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, Murray Watt, said ahead of the National Press Club: “No one deserves to have their health compromised due to their working environment.

“Evidence strongly suggests exposure to respirable crystalline silica when working with engineered stone can lead to silicosis and other serious lung diseases.

“These illnesses have been devastating and debilitating for Australian workers and their families, and we cannot continue to allow it to happen.

“That’s why we are introducing an import ban on engineered stone to protect workers from this deadly disease, providing an extra layer of deterrence at the border.”

There was a huge push for the ban after the Safe Work Australia report was released in October 2023.

Tristan Wilson worked as a stonemason for five years before he was diagnosed with silicosis and told he will need a lung transplant.

The first case of silicosis happened in Australia in 2015. Picture: istock

“Are they waiting for more people to get sick? Are they waiting for death to start happening … for the bodies to start coming in?” Mr Wilson told the ABC.

“Because it’s going to happen.”

He wasn’t the only one to make such a declaration with Nathan Donnelly, a Victorian dad suffering silicosis, telling news.com.au he received his diagnosis after a 15-year career installing kitchen benchtops, and said he was hardly warned of the dangers.

Sharing a series of troubling images of young tradies on worksites working with the deadly products without PPE, he stated a “hazmat suit and quarantine” would be the only way to deal with the products safely.

“As soon as you remove the mask, the dust is all over your face,” he told this publication.

“I was going home at night covered in dust. It was in my car, in my clothes. I was bringing it home to my kids.”

Curtin University estimated more than 275,000 workers, primarily tradies, were exposed to high levels of the carcinogenic dust.

The study predicted that up to 103,000 labourers would be diagnosed with silicosis.

The Royal Australian College of GPs states those diagnosed with silicosis “lose an average 11.6 years of life”.

Originally published as Popular kitchen item has been banned from importation into Australia