Australia: Refining the Engineered-Stone Ban
CANBERRA, Australia – Engineered-stone fabrication could continue through year’s end in Australia – but only under special circumstances.
The agreement to allow limited fabrication of engineered stone (i.e., quartz surfaces) in the second half of 2024 comes as regulators work on the details of the July 1 ban on working on new projects with the material.
The country’s work health and safety (WHS) ministers met on March 22 to iron out procedures on the ban that they approved in December.
The second-half-2024 exemption will apply only to projects with a contract agreed to on or before Dec. 31 of last year. Fabrication methods, however, will be strictly controlled.
“Activities undertaken during this period must be appropriately controlled and will be subject to stronger WHS regulations for high-risk crystalline processes,” noted the memo from the March 22 WHS meeting.
Final determination on the exemption regulations is set for consideration by the WHS ministers later this month.
The WHS ministers also encouraged enforcement if companies attempt to rebrand engineered stone as a different product to sidestep the ban. They also expanded the prohibition of “uncontrolled” (dry) work with crystalline silica in all industries in Australia.
Regulators also amended the prohibition to clarify several issues, including that the ban applies to engineered-stone blanks, panels and slabs. However, finished products with engineered stone that “do not require processing or modification, and pose minimal risk to the health and safety of workers, are not prohibited.”
Another amendment specifically excludes “all sintered stone and porcelain products,” noting that the ban doesn’t cover “products that do not contain resin.”
However, the WHS ministers didn’t give the all-clear to porcelain and sintered stone and called for more studies on possible effects on workers during fabrication.
The group asked Safe Work Australia, the country’s workplace-safety overseers, for “urgent advice” on the health risks of sintered stone,
Safe Work Australia will also “review the health risks to workers associated with processing slabs, panels and benchtops made from alternative materials, which may contain or be free from crystalline silica.” That review is scheduled for completion at the end of July 2025.
