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A new bill, introduced to Parliament, will mandate the reporting of deadly occupational respiratory diseases such as silicosis, but some doctors say the Australian Government has been too slow to act.
Specialists in respiratory, sleep, occupational and environmental medicine will be required to make a notification to a new registry of every diagnosis of occupationally caused silicosis, if a new bill passes Parliament.
Dr Ryan Hoy, Respiratory and Sleep Disorders Physician and Senior Research Fellow at Monash Centre for Occupational and Environmental Health, has welcomed the announcement, but was critical of the delay in action being taken to address the issue.
“The introduction of the National Occupational Respiratory Disease Registry legislation is the first step in a new approach to identify where workplace health and safety systems may be failing workers,” Dr Hoy told InSight+.
“The re-emergence of coal workers’ pneumoconiosis in Queensland in 2016 and the epidemic of silicosis in the stone benchtop industry demonstrate that regulators have been far too slow to identify serious respiratory hazards in Australian workplaces.”
Registry recommended back in 2019
Nearly one in four engineered stone workers who have been in the industry before 2018 have been diagnosed with silicosis or other silica dust-related diseases.
This number is predicted to rise, most notably among young men.
The establishment of a National Occupational Respiratory Disease Registry was a key recommendation of the National Dust Disease Taskforce in 2019, which was set up in response to the increasing number of accelerated silicosis among people working in the engineered stone benchtop sector.
As recommended by the taskforce, specialists in respiratory, sleep, occupational and environmental medicine will be required to make the notifications.
They may also notify the registry of other occupational respiratory diseases, with the patient’s consent.
“Silicosis can have a devastating impact on workers and their loved ones – this is an entirely preventable illness, and all too often leads to entirely preventable deaths,” Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care Ged Kearney MP said in a statement.
“The new national registry is another important step forward to support early detection of new cases and identify workplaces and industries that require greater scrutiny.”
Slow progress for an urgent issue
Dr Hoy has been sounding the alarm bell on silicosis for years.
“Further awareness of the risk associated with fabrication work using artificial stone is urgently required, especially at an industry level,” he and his co-authors wrote in a research article in 2017.
“We believe that significantly more work is needed regarding control of exposure to [respirable crystalline silica] and health surveillance in order to protect workers in this industry.”
Dr Hoy said the delay in government action has limited the ability to protect other at-risk workers.
“The Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand have been actively advocating for a national registry since the identification of Queensland workers with coal workers’ pneumoconiosis in 2016,” he said.
“Australia has been in the dark for far too long regarding the types of occupational respiratory diseases that are occurring, and this has severely limited the ability to target interventions to protect other at-risk workers.”
The registry must be beyond “mere data collection”
The government has committed $2.4 million for the operation of the national registry through to 2025–26.
Information from the national registry will be disclosed to state and territory authorities with responsibility for protecting workers from respiratory diseases.
“We are acting now to ensure workplace safety authorities have accurate information about the number and types of cases of occupational respiratory diseases,” Assistant Minister Kearney said.
Dr Hoy emphasised that the registry must not be reduced to a passive data collecting exercise.
“For the registry to effectively contribute to the protection of workers, clinicians must be actively engaged by the registry operator,” Dr Hoy said.
“Clinicians will need to see clearly that regulators are acting on the extraordinarily valuable information that is provided to them.”
The data gathered by the registry will be invaluable information in the global efforts to address occupationally caused silicosis.
“There are numerous countries where occupational respiratory diseases registries are operating and provide valuable insights into causes and trends in these diseases,” Dr Hoy said.
“Perpetual changes in industrial processes and innovation mean there will always be the potential for new threats to workers’ respiratory health.
“Interaction, and comparisons, with other occupational registries’ data from overseas will be an essential part of continuous vigilance.”
Progress on the bill’s passage through Parliament can be found online.
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