A Safe Work Australia report found engineered stone poses an ‘unacceptable risk to workers’ and should be banned.
The ACT government says its prepared to introduce its own ban if a national agreement isn’t reached.
The CFMEU is calling on retailers like Bunnings and IKEA to stop selling engineered stone products.
While your argument is well-formed, it is not readily applicable as the regulation requiring PPE instead of outright illegalizing the substance places the onerous on the employer to not be a stingy, cheap bastard, not the tradesman who is doing that job. I understand that my perspective is as someone in the USA, so applicable laws are subject to an Aussie analog. Here we have a law that states that any equipment required to do a job must be provided by the employer free of charge to the employee. When a law mandates that PPE be worn to work with a given substance, that means that the employer is liable to provide it and subject to penalties if they are caught/reported for not. Setting aside the multitude of ways that industry lobbyists have gotten into the laws to get around this fact, it would be an adequate way to raise the entry bar and protect employees from future harm. Especially if there are adequate protections for reporting violations. An alternative is to tax the shit out of the production/sale of the material. In conjunction, it dissuades the use, protects tradesmen, and brings in some extra cash for the local government when they do still decide to use it.