‘Enormous increase’ of deadly lung disease silicosis linked to hazardous stonemasonry

The Sunday Herald Sun can reveal more than 500 Victorians workers have now been diagnosed with the incurable lung disease silicosis, and just recently there has been an “alarming” spike in cases.

More than 500 Victorians workers have now been diagnosed with the incurable lung disease silicosis after a rapid spike in cases since 2015.

Sobering statistics show there were 536 workers’ compensation claims for the occupational disease between 1991 and 2022, with 97 per cent of patients from the stone benchtop industry.

The new figures, released by Monash University, also revealed cases of the deadly disease have risen at a staggering rate since 2015 — recording a 27-fold increase in some points.

Nine out of ten claims (482) were made between 2015 and 2022, representing a 2700 per cent increase compared to the previous 8-year period.

Monash researcher Dr Ryan Hoy said the figures confirmed the silicosis outbreak’s “alarming scale”, and were partially driven by a rise in dangerous work environments.

“It reflects an alarming, enormous increase in a completely preventable disease,” he said.

“One (of the reasons) is the extremely hazardous work environment that so many workers have been exposed to.”

Silicosis is an incurable workplace-related disease caused by inhaling silica dust, causing scarring in the lungs. Picture: Supplied

But he said state government screening measures had also led to earlier diagnoses, increasing the numbers.

“Workers in the benchtop industry have been provided access to free health assessments since about mid 2019, and that’s actually resulted in detection of many, many patients with this disease that wouldn’t have been identified otherwise.

“We found the average age (of diagnosis) was about 40 years.

“When you compare that to other, similar countries, the average age is about 60 years.”

Joshua Suwa worked in stonemasonry for over a decade before his silicosis diagnosis took him out of the industry. Photo: Supplied

The analysis, published in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine, analysed data from Victoria workers compensations claims and a registry, introduced in May 2019, of cases recorded by respiratory physicians.

Dr Hoy said he suspected numbers may start to fall – because of both screening and the ban – but there will still be many patients who suffer for “decades to come”.

“The ban of engineered stone is a very important step in protecting workers; however, there

has been two decades of workers being exposed,” he said.

“The effects of higher level silica exposure can be delayed for years, if not decades, after the exposure … so unfortunately many of them do remain at risk of disease for years and years to come.”

While some patients can live for many years with silicosis, more than one in five of the 500-plus Victorian cases were diagnosed with “more advanced complicated silicosis”.

Dr Hoy said the effects of the disease could “be really wide-reaching” for individuals and their families.

“Unfortunately for a lot of people with this condition, it can be progressive,” he said.

The deadly disease is caused by inhaling fine silica dust particles and Dr Hoy said, while exposure was a significant risk in the stone bench top industry, it occurred across a “wide, wide range of injuries”.

“We really need to keep a higher level of awareness and alertness for silicon exposure in the construction industry, in tunnelling, in cutting tiles,” he said.

“There’s so many other industries beyond the benchtop industry, where there is risk to workers.”

Originally published as ‘Enormous increase’ of deadly lung disease silicosis linked to hazardous stonemasonry