Thirteen workers, including a 32-year-old, employed on tunnelling projects in Sydney have been diagnosed with silicosis. The workers' union says there have not been any prosecutions due to breaches of silica dust exposure. WorkSafe NSW carried out 90 inspections on tunnelling sites between January and September 2024, and says the cases are still under investigation.
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00:00The M6 tunnels made headlines for all the wrong reasons last year when two massive sinkholes
00:08appeared.
00:09But below the surface, 13 workers have been dealt the cruelest of blows, having been diagnosed
00:14with silicosis, one of them just 32 years old.
00:1832 is an extremely young age to contract silicosis.
00:22What that means is that that particular worker must have been exposed to a shocking amount
00:28of silica dust.
00:29It's a chronic disease, it can continue to develop over time and the cause, the only
00:37cause is breathing in of silica dust.
00:40The 13 employees all worked for CPB contractors but it's not clear exactly when or where the
00:46exposure occurred as workers often move between projects and companies.
00:50SafeWork NSW says there have been 66 breaches of silica guidelines since September but won't
00:57say whether any involved CPB.
00:59It is against the law for workers to be exposed to unacceptable levels of silica dust.
01:06There has not been a single prosecution of a tunnelling company due to breaches of silica
01:12dust exposure.
01:13The government's established an expert task force to manage the risks of silicosis in
01:17tunnelling projects and notify the public and workers when safety standards are breached.
01:23SafeWork NSW says in nine months last year it conducted 90 site visits to tunnelling
01:28projects around Sydney, more than double the figure from the year before.
01:32But while some inspections are unannounced, contractors are often given prior warning.
01:37Unfortunately given the nature of the project it can be difficult to access areas as a surprise
01:42visit.
01:43An analogy of that would be a police officer tipping off that they're going to conduct
01:49a raid.
01:50No CPB contractors didn't respond to the ABC's request for comment.