Australian federal workplace ministers will ask state and federal ministers to accelerate the ban on the domestic use of silica due to the risks it carries of causing an incurable, progressive, and in many cases, fatal lung disease.
Each year around 600,000 Australian workers are exposed to silica dust at work, according to the Australian Workers Union.
As it is 100 times smaller than a grain of sand, when breathed in, silica dust is small enough to penetrate deep into the lungs, causing irreversible lung damage.
As one of the key components of soil, sand and granite, it’s used on a vast scale across Australia in construction, tunnelling, excavating, mining, and road construction. It’s also widely used in the renewable energy sector, such as in thermal energy storage and solar panels….