Deadly dust
Stone workers urged to check on compensation
‘‘When I actually got a check I was quite upset. I don’t know if it has sunken in 100 per cent yet, but having young kids, it’s not fun.’’
Former stonemason Nicholas Boreham with his 5-week-old son Jaxon, and daughters Taylor, 7, left and Rylee, 9.
Former stonemason and father of three Nicholas Boreham is seeking compensation in Australia for an incurable lung disease caused by silica dust from engineered stone.
The 33-year-old from Lower Hutt is urging other New Zealanders who have worked for engineered stone fabricators across the Tasman to apply for Australian worker compensation if health checks show lung damage from exposure to toxic levels of silica.
Boreham was prompted to act after a Kiwi friend living in Australia was diagnosed with accelerated silicosis, despite having no symptoms, and the man received more than $900,000 in compensation after learning he had 10-15 years to live.
‘‘Do something about it because no one is going to come find you. They’re not going to come running at you saying, hey, look, I’m sorry, I think we’ve given you a terminal disease,’’ Boreham said.
The Ministry of Health is recommending screening for anyone who has worked with engineered stone for at least six months in the past 10 years.
ACC has received 65 claims for silica dust exposure since launching a campaign to identify affected New Zealand workers last September, but it will not cover those like Boreham who were exposed overseas.
A CT scan showed black patches on his lungs, and he said finding out that he had accelerated silicosis was difficult for him and for fiancee Brittney Marshall with whom he has three children, Jaxon, 5 weeks, Taylor, 7, and Rylee, 9.
‘‘When I actually got a check I was quite upset. I don’t know if it has sunken in 100 per cent yet, but having young kids, it’s not fun.’’
Australian Council of Trade Unions assistant secretary Liam O’Brien said an estimated 450 workers across Australia had been diagnosed with accelerated silicosis, and in Victoria, where Boreham worked, one in five of the 774 workers screened had the condition.
O’Brien said the union did not know how many New Zealanders had been employed in Australia’s largely nonunionised engineered stone industry, a major supplier of kitchen and bathroom benchtops.
Boreham, who returned to New Zealand in 2015 after four years in Australia, said a lot of engineered stone was cut dry over there, rather than cut under a water jet to prevent dust.
At his Queensland workplace, about nine workers were crammed into a shed with minimal ventilation, and PPE consisted of paper masks.
‘‘Everyone was in close proximity to each other . . . so you’re getting sprayed by dust from all angles.’’
Boreham suffered from asthma, so he attributed his breathlessness to the Queensland heat, and then the cooler climate when he shifted to Melbourne.
‘‘I just assumed it was my lungs trying to adjust to the moisture in the air because that has a lot to do with my asthma. There’s no pain anywhere or anything like that.
‘‘They said it will not affect me much yet, later in life my fifties and sixties is when it will really take a toll. ‘‘
However, the lung condition is already limiting his job options because doctors have told him to avoid all dust and vapours, so he is unable to return to panelbeating, and now works as a truck driver.
He wants to be able to afford advances in medical treatment, such as an experimental ‘‘lung washing’’ technique being trialled in Queensland, if it becomes available here.
Boreham’s Queensland lawyer, Roger Singh, said Kiwi claimants did not have to be resident in Australia.
As well as securing lump sum worker compensation, superannuation schemes could be tapped for permanent disability and life insurance payments, and New Zealanders could sue Australian employers and engineered stone manufacturers to compensate for pain and suffering, shorter life expectancy, future medical expenses and economic loss.
Singh handled the case of an Australian a stonemason who died of silicosis in 2019, aged 36, and has others in their twenties with terminal diagnoses.
‘‘I have many clients where the severity of injury is such that double lung transplantation is the only form of treatment available,’’ he said.
‘‘Some cases result in multimillion payments for young men because they will pass away prematurely.’’
Major New Zealand engineered stone suppliers have set up a voluntary accreditation scheme for fabricators with safety guidelines to reduce dust exposure.
But O’Brien said a similar licensing scheme proposed by the Australian industry last year would have done little to protect workers, and a state licensing system was needed.
‘‘This looks like the industry trying to get its house in order before Government regulates,’’ he said.
The Australian Council of Trade Unions wants a ban on engineered stone phased in over three years, with a move to safer alternatives.
‘‘This is a fashion product, this is not an essential item,’’ O’Brien said.