Machine cutting through a reconstituted stone worktop.
Photo: 123rf

The government is consulting on whether it should follow Australia in banning cast stone worktops, or whether it should refrain from doing so.

Australia has banned the use and manufacture of reconstituted stone in July after a concerted campaign focused on the seriously ill.

Workplace Safety Minister Brooke van Velden said workplace inspections here had revealed uneven risk management.

“While I do not believe there is currently evidence to support a complete ban on the product, I encourage the authors to provide their views and the implications of this position,” she said on Wednesday. in a press release.

She was open to a range of regulatory responses.

WorkSafe has taken action against 239 companies over engineered stone since 2019. “The range of risks assessed has expanded,” it said.

Engineered stone is made by mixing finely crushed rock with a polymer resin. In its solid form it is harmless, but its shaping creates dangerous dust.

The Department of Business, Innovation and Employment has been reviewing the regulations for months now.

He told the minister in January 2024 that there was “a growing body of evidence of harm”.

The new consultation comes five years after the first safety alert was issued by WorkSafe, warning that dust can cause chronic silicosis or accelerated silicosis which can be fatal.

The Asthma Foundation, doctors and unions this year called on New Zealand to follow Australia on the ban.

“It’s important that we use an evidence-based approach and consider a range of tools to address this issue in the New Zealand context,” van Velden said.

One of the messages emerging from a national industry consultation was that businesses wanted more and better advice in general because they are “not getting proper advice” on how to stay safe, she declared.

The wider risks associated with respirable crystalline silica, outside of engineered stone, are part of the consultation.