The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) recently announced a major package of measures to protect workers from the dangers of engineered stone dust, including silicosis, a deadly-but-preventable lung disease caused by breathing in silica dust released during stone cutting.
The package includes the publication of new guidance making clear that dry cutting of engineered stone is unacceptable and that water suppression techniques, already used by many industry leaders, are how businesses should meet the legal requirement.
The guidance will be backed-up by a nationwide inspection programme. Over the next 12 months, HSE inspectors will conduct more than 1,000 visits to fabricators across Great Britain, with enforcement action taken against those failing to meet the required standards. The first inspections are already underway.
The deaths of two young workers from silicosis in recent years prompted calls for action on engineered stone cutting from MPs, trade unions, and medical professionals.
Mike Calcutt, deputy director in HSE’s Engagement and Policy Division, said:
“Today’s guidance marks our most significant intervention in the engineered stone sector to date, and not without good reason.
“Silicosis is incurable, but it is entirely preventable. No worker should lose their life to a lung disease caused by their job, and that is why we have taken this action.
www.hse.gov.uk
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