Australian CDC provides doctors with updated silica dust guidance

In 2024, Australia became the first country in the world to ban the manufacture, supply, processing and installation of crystalline silica-containing engineered stone containing 1% or more crystalline silica.

Dangerous silica dust is not confined to benchtops, with around 4% of Australian workers — across industries from engineered stone and masonry to tunnelling, mining, construction, demolition and jewellery polishing — at risk of exposure to respirable crystalline silica.

As the Australian Centre for Disease Control (CDC) explains, a key complement to reforms in regulatory systems, workplace control measures and legislation is to support medical professionals to identify silica-related disease and respond to risk.

Therefore, to support medical professionals to identify and evaluate those most at risk, detecting disease earlier and intervening before further harm occurs, the Australian CDC has released their updated ‘National guidance for doctors assessing workers exposed to respirable crystalline silica dust’.

Outlining best practices for health assessments and monitoring and spanning available evidence, clinical evaluation strategies and collaborative decision making with patients, key updates in the guidance include:

• revised health monitoring requirements;
• enhanced protocols for identifying and managing silica-related diseases; and
• significantly reducing risk for workers across industries like stone masonry and stone benchtop manufacturing and fabricating: a nationwide ban on the importation and use of engineered stone.
   

The updated guidance is available at www.cdc.gov.au/resources/publications/national-guidance-doctors-assessing-workers-crystalline-silica-dust-practice-guide.

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