Ban kitchen stone or risk deadly lung disease in hundreds of workers, says medic

Ben Harrison received the devastating news that he had the deadly and incurable lung disease called silicosis the day before his 30th birthday.

For 10 years, the Australian stonemason had been cutting kitchen worktops in sheds, in dust so thick he could barely see his co-workers.

Unaware that they were putting themselves at risk of permanent lung damage, the tradesmen worked without any protection as toxic silica dust enveloped them, their clothes and cars every day.

Fans to keep them cool in the searing Queensland heat simply blew the dust around. None of them wore masks, or used water to dampen down the stone – a technique the British Occupational Hygiene Society (BOHS) has identified as a key safety measure in urgent guidance for tradespeople published last week.

Dr Ryan Hoy, a respiratory doctor who led the world’s most comprehensive study of silicosis in stonemasons, has described the soaring rates in Australia as the worst health crisis he has seen.

The first case of engineered stone silicosis in the country was identified in 2015; seven years later, 579 cases have been recorded there.

Dr Hoy treats more than 100 patients at the Alfred Health occupational respiratory clinic in Melbourne, the country’s first clinic for construction industry workers diagnosed with the disease.

“I do a silicosis clinic once a week, and it is the hardest part of my week. Seeing these patients, struggling with this disease, both physically and mentally,” he said.

“I see lots of terrible diseases, whether it’s lung cancer or emphysema, but this has been the worst I’ve seen in my career.”

Earlier this year, i revealed that the first cases of silicosis among engineered stone workers in the UK have started to emerge, and although reported numbers are currently much smaller than Australia, experts believe the true figure here could be higher.

From Monday, Australia will become the first country in the world to impose a ban on the manufacture, supply, processing and installation engineered – or artificial – stone in a bid to stem what health officials have branded an epidemic of silicosis.

Dr Hoy warned that without a ban the UK could be heading for a similar number of tradesmen and women becoming afflicted with the deadly lung disease.

“I would really hope that you don’t see what we’ve seen in Australia, but I really suspect that you will,” he said.

“Unless it’s not as popular, and if by some reason your work conditions are so much better than what ours have been. But again, I suspect that that’s not going to be the case.”

Ben Harrison receiving treatment after being diagnosed with silicosis – a result of working with silica-based kitchen worktops (Photo: supplied)

After developing coughs and worsening asthma, Mr Harrison, a father-of-three, was advised by friends to get tested in 2019 after one of his former colleagues was diagnosed with silicosis, which he later died from.

His wife, Cristale Harrison, 34, said: “From the moment of diagnosis, our world just shattered. When you get handed a diagnosis and you don’t know what coming your way, you just kind of crumble.

“It was six months after his diagnosis that we nearly lost him. He declined rapidly with his health.”

The outbreak of silicosis linked to the cutting and polishing of quartz engineered stone worktops, a hugely popular stone used in kitchen renovations, has seen men in their 30s and 40s forced to have lung transplants after breathing in silica dust.

Compared to silicosis associated with professions like mining, engineered stone silicosis has been associated with a shorter duration of exposure, more rapid disease progression and higher mortality, with its high silica content a risk for workers.

The ban in Australia has been welcomed by those in the industry who have been afflicted with the disease. But the measures will come too late for the stonemasons already battling silicosis.

As Mr Harrison’s health deteriorated, at one point his weight declined to just over nine stone (58 kilos). He was forced to resign from his job and the family had to sell their home in Tasmania, where they now lived.

Now 35, he can no longer play football with his children and says the disease has “turned my life inside out and upside down”.

“I’ve got three young children who I don’t think I’ll see graduate school. I live with that every day,” he told Lung Foundation Australia.

Ben Harrison’ s wife Cristale said since his silicosis diagnosis their world has been shattered (Photo: Supplied)

Dr Hoy said that a free government health screening offered around Australia since 2019 has been a “vital” development in helping identify workers affected by the condition.

“It wasn’t until we got the backing of the government to go out and really take this issue seriously, to actually investigate the workplaces, to provide the screening to workers, that we uncovered the size of the problem,” he said.

Workers were encouraged to attend a screening program involving breathing tests, chest X-rays and CT scans before a doctor determined a silicosis diagnosis.

In the UK, the Government ruled out a ban on artificial stone kitchen worktops earlier this year, despite growing calls for the material to be outlawed, including from within the House of Lords and the medical community, amid major health fears.

In Victoria, of the 544 workers that went through screening, 117 (more than 20 per cent) had silicosis – more than half of them migrants.

Many of Dr Hoy’s patients are Vietnamese migrants, some of whom have the worst form of silicosis. It is a similar situation in California, where 127 stone workers, mainly Latino migrants, have been diagnosed, the majority since 2019.

At least 13 of those workers have died. Spain and Israel have also identified cases among stonemasons.

Ben Harrison, his wife Cristale and their three sons, who he now struggles to play games like football with as his health worsens (Photo: Supplied)

Dr Hoy sees Australia’s ban as the most effective way to safeguard workers, but warns after 20 years of exposure cases will continue to spike.

“Every country needs to come to their own decision about it. But, my experience, and the experience of my colleagues here is that, the only way to protect workers is to ban the material,” he said.

“We’ve gone through licensing, we have had blitzes of inspections, we’ve had education programs, screening programs, we’ve tried so many different approaches to control this problem.

“At the end of the day this is material that is hazardous and unless you’ve got extraordinarily sophisticated control measures that you’re using day in, day out, forever, banning it’s the only way to actually protect workers.”

Five years into his battle with silicosis, Ms Harrison said her husband’s lung functions have declined and he has reoccurring bouts of pneumonia.

Some days he is unable to get out of bed, and has to receive healthcare at home.

Mr Harrison fears he won’t live to see his three young children graduate from school (Photo: Supplied)

She said it was “outrageous” that it had taken so long for a ban to be imposed in Australia, given the scale of cases there.

And as cases start to emerge in the UK, she urged authorities: “Act now, before the cases unravel, be smart. Don’t wait for the problem.”

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Professor Kevin Bampton, chief executive of the British Occupational Hygiene Society believes there is “no doubt” that increased awareness of the issue is flushing out more cases of silicosis in the UK.

And while the leading scientific body isn’t calling for a ban here, it hopes to raise awareness among industry workers.

“Part of the spike we are likely to see is latency as a result of ignorance,” he said.

“That being said, it seems clear that something significant has happened in the UK around business processes, for example the participation of migrant labour in this work, and also the rise in availability of engineered stone, as against natural stone

“The issue is really not about enforcement, it is about education and awareness”.

He called on the UK to “up its game”, and for a high-profile campaign and guidance from the Health and Safety Executive.

But he sees the Australia ban as having been “almost compensatory of a lax and indifferent attitude” to enforcing guidance.

“Really, the engineered stone industry there was commonly operating without meaningful controls,” he said.

“The UK industry and demand has been relatively recent and the business case for highly automated working was strong.”