On Wednesday, Victoria’s Labor Government announced its plan to push for tighter restrictions on workers’ daily exposure to silica dust, concentrating on 300 workplace environments considered ‘high-risk’ including construction, with a particular focus on stonemasonry.

As the leading voice of the building and construction industry, Master Builders Victoria is clearly supportive of any measures that make working conditions safer.

We also applaud any moves to draw greater attention to risks to health and safety, such as airborne particulate matter and the deadly lung diseases, such as silicosis, that can result from acute or prolonged exposure.

Master Builders Victoria is eager to see evidence-led approaches underpinning the revision of exposure standards to crystalline silica.

We also welcome any measures that increase broad awareness of the safe handling of silica-based materials including the education of both workers and health professionals, and access to free health screenings.

We note however, that should the Labor Government’s recommended reduction of the silica workplace daily exposure standard from 0.1 mg/m3 to 0.02 mg/m3 be adopted nationally, Australia would have the lowest such standard in the world.

But given the difficulty of measuring such low levels accurately, it increases the likelihood of severe restrictions on some materials containing high levels of silica currently used routinely in the building and construction industry.

We await the outcome of Safe Work Australia’s consultation period on a revised national exposure standard and will keep members informed.

See the Victorian Government’s media release here.