Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
The Clare Byrne Show on Newstalk with Aviva Insurance.
Chapter 2: What health risks are associated with working with quartz?
Kitchen countertops made from quartz have become hugely popular in recent years, but now a deadly lung disease associated with toxins released when quartz is cut has led to it being banned in Australia. California has started the process of banning it too. And conversations around a ban have started in Britain. So should we be concerned here about the health implications of working with courts?
I'm joined now by specialist occupational and environmental physician based in Australia, Dr. Gordon Hare and Sky News North of England correspondent Katie Barnfield. And you're both very welcome to the programme. Dr. Hare, I'll start with you. I mean, this is all relates back to a condition called silicosis.
You might tell us a little bit about that and about the silica dust and what happens when you inhale it.
Yes, of course, Clare. So silicosis is a condition that's been around for millennia. As long as people have been working with stone, we have had workers inhaling the very fine dust particles or silica particles found in the stone when it is cut and worked with. It settles in the lung and by way of an immune response, we get scarring or fibrosis in the lung.
And what happens is with exposure over many years, eventually we get a progressive lung disease, progressive shortness of breath and a lack of an ability for the lung to exchange oxygen.
So silicosis, does it occur when people are working with all types of stone? And why is it particularly bad when working with quartz?
So it can occur when working with any stone that contains quartz. Almost all natural stones that we'd work with or that stonemasons would work with would contain a certain amount of quartz. The difference with engineered stone or quartz countertops is that the levels are very high, approaching 95%.
The other thing that's concerning here is that the processes that we have, or rather the processes that the workers used when cutting this stone using very high powered tools results in massive exposures being put out into the air. And as such, these workers are exposed at extremely high levels and they're getting a particularly aggressive form of this disease and at a particularly young age.
So even if you wear all the protective gear, you know, a very high tech, high performing mask, for example, does that not work?
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Chapter 3: What is silicosis and how does it affect workers?
It's the only real way that we can assure that workers are not being exposed to this. The nature of the disease is that it does occur over a number of years. So we see a lag time We see the most severe cases come first and then the less severe cases come in multiples of that in a lag afterwards. So, yes, I think this is certainly something the EU needs to be looking at.
Was there much pushback in Australia before the ban was implemented in 2024 or were people supportive of it?
Look, there was some pushback from industry about this. I think what was helpful is that the public were really behind us. There was a few high profile cases in the media. One gentleman, a man, 35, with a young family with respiratory or lung failure. And I think because people could connect that to a person, they could understand the need to do this.
Let's bring Katie in at this point, Katie Barnfield from Sky News. And Katie, you went to California to report on the cases that have come before the courts. You were there at the hearing. What did you hear from those who were impacted by silicosis?
Well, yeah, we were at the hearing where they discussed whether to bring in a ban. Well, it's a statewide, it's an effective ban because obviously there's a difference between federal law and state law in the US. And at state level, they can ban the production, the fabrication of these worktops. And they did start the process towards an emergency ban.
While we were at the hearing, there were probably around 30 or 40 people who were joining either in person or online to give their experiences. queuing up all to give basically the same story, saying most of them were workers or family members who had lost loved ones to this disease.
They were all saying, we used the safety measures, we used wet cutting, we used ventilation, we used masks, and yet we still got this disease. So that was really, really interesting to hear, particularly as we've been doing some reporting in
in the uk on this where there is pushback against the ban um the health and safety executive for instance are saying that you know wet cutting is an effective measure to prevent this but that did feel like it contrasted with what we were hearing and just explain to us um katie what is wet cutting is that pouring water over it as you cut it to sort of dampen down the dust Yes, it is.
There's various measures. I mean, we actually visited a factory in the north of England in the UK who spent thousands on safety measures, including wet cutting. And what they have is kind of a hose, like a jet, that pumps water continuously onto the slab and through the cutting tools.
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Chapter 4: Why is quartz particularly dangerous compared to other stones?
They said that they are not supportive of a ban at the moment. The Health and Safety Executive did put out an announcement last month, at the beginning of last month, saying that they were introducing new legal guidance, making it clear to fabricators that it's not legal to produce this material, to cut this material without using wet cutting. And they also said they were going to bring in
an inspection program of around a thousand fabricators and factories over the next couple of months the government also said they were supporting the health and safety executive on this but they said that they weren't um supporting a ban whether that will change as the number of cases grow whether that will change uh when they're looking at things like california who have decided that that this is an emergency issue and that a ban does need to be brought in place um we'll see
And Gordon, Katie has said that, and you yourself have said it too, that it takes years for this to present between working with it to experiencing symptoms. What does that timeline look like? Are we talking about a decade before you might see any symptoms?
So the time to onset of disease is directly related to the nature and degree of exposure. You're looking at at least three to five years for severe cases. More typically, you're looking at five to ten or more years.
And in Katie's reporting, she reports that this was a disease which affected coal miners back in the 1920s up to the 1950s. Did it largely disappear for a period of time then? And we have seen in recent years because of the use of this stone for kitchen worktops that there's been a resurgence.
Yes, absolutely. So in, you know, well resourced or high income countries, this was considered practically an eradicated or ancient disease, perhaps with a few sporadic cases, you know, one or two every year or every other year. And what we've seen in Australia is that in the last decade, this has increased to hundreds of cases.
Okay, and as you say, we could be on the verge perhaps of looking at a total ban in the European Union as well. Thank you both. It's fascinating. Katie Barnfield from Sky News and Dr. Gordon Hare there who joined us from Australia.
Gordon is a specialist occupational and environmental physician.
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