Australia’s ban of engineered stone: a historic turning point

Abstract

The health risks of working with crystalline silica, a mineral ubiquitous in the earth’s crust, were for a long time associated with the mining industry alone. But interdisciplinary work has led to the (re)discovery that thousands of workers in various sectors are developing the lung disease silicosis or other related serious systemic diseases. Australia’s ban of engineered stone, a manufactured composite material with a high concentration of silica, represents a recent success in the fight against these risks. The European Union should be paying attention