Comment by lathiat
2 years ago
This was considered but the problem is it’s very difficult to enforce in practice
The product is generally installed onsite in a fast paced building industry that doesn’t have time/room to do it properly and often no supervision (1-2 often independent trades doing the installs) to ensure the appropriate measures are actually taken.
The risk has already been known for a while and in practice still lots of “YOLO” onsite cutting without even respirators.
So hold the people intentionally violating safety practices accountable.
This reeks of unnecessary heavy-handedness that hurts everyone. The specified natural alternative (granite) is nearly half silica and is a known health hazard.
All this regulation does is allow sloppy work that'll kill people a little more slowly.
> So hold the people intentionally violating safety practices accountable.
There's already an automatic process for this. They get silicosis.
Anyone else onsite also gets silicosis, too!
Why not just make employers fully responsible in case any of their workers develop silicosis?
The building industry in Australia is filled almost entirely with independent contractors. Mostly single people, working on a contract to the house builder/project manager. So there is little room for that.
But I agree, this would be good.
But I think the decision here is basically that, in practice, it's very difficult to actually get people to follow the required practices, in practice. As has been shown in practice.
In this case I guess the independent contractor ends up accepting the responsibility for not taking their own safety precautions seriously: they get silicosis.
I feel for the people who were early in the industry who had no idea this could happen to them, but now that it's known, if a contractor doesn't feel like taking appropriate precautions, then they get what they deserve.
Banning an entire industry because people cut corners is just dumb.
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