Australia to ban engineered stone

It’s incredible how bad tradies are at PPE. When my solar panels were being installed on my house, the electrician was happily about to drill through asbestos cement eave lining before I stopped him, and at least made him put on a disposable P2 respirator mask I had lying around. But he still released asbestos fibres into the air and the ceiling cavity where his colleagues were working, and will have got it on his clothes and hair. How many times had he done it completely unprotected at other people’s houses without even thinking? (Australian houses often contain AC sheeting in houses built between the 50s to the 80s)

With silica it’s a similar story, we were moving in to an older office block that again had asbestos in the ceiling tiles, and I was wearing a respirator because again electricians had drilled it in a bunch of places (inside this time, ended up going through very expensive decontamination a couple of days later including ripping out and replacing half of the brand new carpet). Anyway, I was in the server room where an air-conditioner guy was installing a split system unit, and he asked me about it and I told him what was happened. He then said something like “Oh yeah, I definitely should have been more careful with that kind of stuff when I was a young fella”, and then proceeds to start drilling through the double brick wall (to install the piping to the outdoor unit) with no mask or hearing protection… Cutting brick and concrete releases silica into the air too, most tradies just give no thought to using proper PPE…

All the people who were cutting engineered stone with unsafe methods, are now just going to be cutting granite and other natural stone with the same safety practices that led to this being banned.

I really don't get it.

Before engineered stone took off like crazy people were already cutting natural stone, working as stone masons, working at BGC quarries (stone mining, crushing, grading, delivery).

After engineered stone became fashionable the rates of silicosis in under 35 year old tradespeople spiked in a sharply noticable way.

After the engineered stone ban things will likely return to previous levels of "it happens but it's acceptably rare".

For whatever reason ( . . . insert theory . . . ) engineered stone manufacture and cutting is much much much worse wrt health issues.

For whatever reason your desk bound rational rule of thumb doesn't track against the data.

Tooling and PPE are part of the problem but not all of it. People who clean up job sites are also getting sick:

"We actually not only saw people who were directly cutting and grinding the stone, but we saw people who were just sweeping up the work site after the stone had been cut," says Rose. "They were exposed to the silica particles that were suspended in the air just with housekeeping duties."

So, basically everyone needs to wear a P100 all the time when on site until the site has totally been cleaned up. In a manufacturing environment, if you're on the floor you wear a mask and there must be a dust collection system and tools that perform dust collection or mitigation. In this case that'd be water saws.

Read the threads here, a lot people don't like wearing respirators. The outcome isn't surprising.

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2019/10/02/7660282...

One of the "Suggested safer alternatives" is Granite which can have silica content up to 45% (Engineered stone being 95%+)

So instead of 2 years to develop silicosis it will instead take 4 years of working with the "safe alternatives"?

It isn’t a good idea to assume linear effects, especially with biology.

Completely anecdotal but my father in law is a stone mason at 75 years old, working since 16 and wears zero PPE. Not even ear muffs on a large cutting machine the size of an SUV. Wears open toe sandals. Incredibly, he is insanely fit, not an ounce of hearing loss, and works full time to this day. I helped him lay a stone wall this year and I dare say he’s possibly stronger than me at almost half his age.

It’s honestly remarkable.

I mean if people break the law there's no need for the law? Speeding is illegal and kills many. The alternative, driving slower, is not perfectly safe. I guess the Germans don't criminalise speeding?

Agreed - I'm surprised the Aussie version of OSHA isn't the one taking care of this problem. I feel really bad for the early workers who didn't know getting affected. That's downright terrible.

But I imagine there's a method of safely working with this material. And, there's ALWAYS going to be hazardous materials - you can't ban them all. You raise the standard of the people working with materials. This feels like - oh melting steel is too hot and can be dangerous - we'll ban melting steel.

NOW, if it's like asbestos and the end consumer can get affected then I 100% agree with this ruling.

Good point. Government talks big about regulation and how much they care, but when examined, look! They bend right over for business.

I'm usually all for worker protection, but this is really ludicrous. What next? Banning saws because people keep cutting off their fingers?

I came to the same conclusion.

Year ago I was cleaning my flat after renovation, there was lots of dust settled everywhere and my first thought was - how do I protect my lungs? There were many one-time-use face masks in hardware store, but those masks did not look like good enough- mainly because of lack of filter. So I bought slightly more expensive aparatus with proper filters. Yet, trademen who were doing the work did not care, they were not wearing anything to prevent dust from being inhaled. I felt so bad for them that I was vacuuming whole place each evening when they were gone (including walls), so at least they would start with no dust... Still, I was wondering how much of their future suffer will be because I was not asking them to protect themselves...

It's really frustrating to be bathing in these holier-than-thou attitudes on the Internet these days. I've noticed the language on social media is also getting worse. I really enjoy the people you can meet on the internet, but the flippant disrespect is really hard for me to accept as normal. OP your comment is not the worst of them, but it seems to be indicative of a trend. I wish you well.

I'm amazed at the person cited in the article who worked in administration at a quarry, developed silicosis and didn't know what it was. That suggests it's not just people willfully ignoring PPE practices, it's that they genuinely have no clue how dangerous rock dust is.

The Australian government has 2 levers. Tax or Ban.

Their reasons are usually bullshit, such as their Vape ban, which implies that border farce cant keep nicotine out of the country in this one specific product category.

So instead of 2 years to develop silicosis it will instead take 4 years of working with the "safe alternatives"?

I’m not sure it works like that?

With many things, a lower dose gives more time for repair mechanisms so the effect of a reduction could be outsized. I’d like to see some data.

Also, granite is likely more expensive. So less of it will be used.

The engineered stone is just powder held together with plastic resin, isn't it?

Maybe it cuts so easily that they skip using water.

From the report (page 56):

Exposure to RCS from engineered stone causes silicosis typified by a faster onset and more rapid progression than that caused by RCS [Respirable crystalline silica] from other sources, including natural stone.

When engineered stone is processed, the dust generated contains higher levels of RCS, and that RCS has different physical and chemical properties that likely contribute to the more rapid and severe disease. There is also evidence to suggest that other components of engineered stone may contribute to the toxic effects of engineered stone dust, either alone or by exacerbating the effects of RCS.

...

The increased risks posed by RCS from engineered stone, increased rate of silicosis diagnosis amongst engineered stone workers, and the faster and more severe disease progression amongst this group, combined with a multi-faceted failure of this industry to comply with the model WHS laws means that continued work with engineered stone poses an unacceptable risk to workers. The use of all engineered stone should be prohibited.

https://www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/sites/default/files/202...

One of the "Suggested safer alternatives" is Granite which can have silica content up to 45% (Engineered stone being 95%+)

So instead of 2 years to develop silicosis it will instead take 4 years of working with the "safe alternatives"

I doubt that the connection is linear. Half the silica doesn't mean double exposure time has the same effect.

I've worked previously as a firefighter, a lot of the stuff that we do can be considered high risk. PPE is incredibly important however there are several issues I have noticed while working with PPE.

1. PPE can get in the way of being efficient.

From personal experience this is one of the most painful things. Engineers design equipment to meet requirements. The people setting these requirements are often bureaucrats who have no knowledge of what it feels like to be doing the manual labor. Some of them may never have even handled any heavy machinery in their life - the end result is you end up with unergonomic tools. Since, the workers are not the ones paying for the tools, the upper management will select things that hit their own KPIs. Some how you are expected to hit unrealistic throughputs with tools that dont work well with your PPE. End result is most people will neglect PPE and find ways around it.

2. PPE upkeep

One has to keep equipment in good condition. Using boots with holes is not going to be a good idea. Corporate culture however is such that they make replacing PPE very painful, in part because PPE is ridiculously expensive in certain contexts. Good managers and supervisors will make sure their crew has safe equipment but often have to take the blame if they overspend. Lazy managers/supervisors will make it a nightmare if anything gets damaged. Unfortunately the number of lazy supervisors far outstrips good supervisors. This can result in things like black markets for PPEs.

3. Workplace culture

It can be "manly" to do things in an unsafe manner. This takes a lot of work to solve but the best way to solve it is by trying to inculcate a culture where people don't cause suffering for others just because they suffered. There is no need to "pay forward" a malpractice. If someone abused you earlier for conforming to something, that doesn't give you the right to abuse your junior. The problem is people who do this kind of change often go unnoticed.

I really don't get it.

I have no insight into Australia's workings here, in California this kind of WTF can happen in the sort of situation where there is an industry that is being disrupted/destroyed by the 'thing' in question and as a result a way is found to make the 'thing' bad (but not in a way that just says "It makes other options noncompetitive but in a way you can't argue with." Health issues are the go to straw man in that case.

You absolutely could create big fines for the contracting and construction companies that sold an engineered stone solution which would protect the workers as it would be noncompetitive to not follow the rules and risk a huge fine. But that wouldn't help the granite and stainless steel countertop folks would it? Or the contractors that install granite or stainless steel.

I don't understand how banning it does anything to address the underlying problem of people wilfully ignoring PPE/safe working practices.

maybe it's because the "underlying problem" they are trying to address is people contracting and dying from silicosis

Would you think that imposing heavy fines, and perhaps even criminal penalties when workers are not properly informed, would be a better alternative to banning an economically advantageous product?

The logic here is that if an industry can only be made safe with strict PPE standards, but the market dynamics make it difficult to ensure compliance with those standards, then it is OK to ban the industry.

That seems a pretty concerning stance for small businesses. What's next? Ban microbreweries because they don't properly manage the risks of CO2 asphyxiation? Ban small-shop mechanics because they routinely get brake fluid on their hands?

Well-enforced safety regulations are a good thing for everyone. Banning small businesses because regulating them is hard seems... economically undesirable.

Makes sense, this kind of work can have an extremely “toxic” anti-ppe culture that’s impossible to mitigate against without outright burning the industry to the ground. Fines and inspections are easy to dodge when everyone involved is trying to do so.

Hell I work in agronomy and it’s hard enough getting seasonal helpers to wear earplugs when riding ATVs all day. Then there was an old supervisor from a former oil change and tire repair shop job I had, who had hand shakes from nerve damage due to automotive chemical exposure, and he was actually comparatively decent about PPE, especially for helpers.

To protect the workers we must fire them.

Some stay this is also the case in the United States.

Australian here. We recently had a kitchen bench top made from engineered stone installed. I was previously entirely oblivious to the risks involved. Suffice it to say that we would have chosen a different material had I known the health burden of inhaling the dust during preparation/cutting.

The contractor who installed the bench top for us was however very diligent in alerting us to what safety measures we should follow should any on-site cutting be required at our place. Which it wasn’t in the end. So at least he was aware that the sawdust is a major health hazard.

But that’s one contractor, which does not represent an entire industry. Engineered stone is fashionable and I imagine there are many black sheep out there doing it for cheap with under-trained or unsupervised personnel.

Your request has been blocked.

Do you think that folks will install it on site without cutting it?

Asbestos and lead are also minimal risk undamaged in-situ. Both are now banned, and for good reason.

Exactly. Or more precisely, ban the net effect (putting the dust into the air), and then people can find the best alternative given that constraint, whether it's a better manufacturing/installation process that doesn't put the dust into the air, or a product that doesn't produce the dust in the first place.

Wood dust is also dangerous... Basically you should just try to breath air and not solids

Yes. They should have just banned or limited dry cutting. Cutting stone wet, with running water, produces practically no dust whatsoever.

Studies looking into the issue have found non silica compounds cause issues too, and its the engineering process rather than the silica that causes the problem. This is why they haven't created an exemption for low-silica products.

"It's not just about the silica, it's something specific about the engineered stone products that's causing such a significant issue in workers fabricating these products."

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-12-05/study-finds-safety-co...

if this was an american decision, i'd suggest the natural stone lobby was better than the engineered stone lobby.

Possibly the issue is more to do with the lower cost of the engineered material?

Like, when tobacco cost a megabuck per oz in Queen Elizabeth times people smoked a pipe once in a while and in the context of their high exposure to fireplace smoke it was no big deal. Fast forward to when cigarettes cost 10c/pack and the marketing guys are selling them to 8 year olds...now it's a huge health problem.

Apparently the spike in cases in due to engineered stone. The FAQ gives various reasons why this may be the case, e.g. the generated particle size is different, and also it is easier to cut than natural stone so it may be processed by less skilled workers.

https://www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/safety-topic/hazards/cr...

The engineered stone is almost entirely silica.

Hoy said that long before stonecutters started struggling to breathe, the sheer amount of silica in many kinds of engineered stone — upwards of 90% — should have made it obvious that the material was risky to cut and grind, especially in workplaces without sophisticated measures to control dust.(1)

But scientists and regulators have grown concerned about whether recommended strategies such as wet cutting, proper ventilation and wearing respirator masks can do enough to protect workers from dust so high in silica. Cal/OSHA officials have generally described silicosis as preventable, but also caution that with 93% silica(2) content, “safe use of engineered stone may not be possible” even with proper workplace practices.(1)

(1) https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-11-19/why-cali...

2. https://www.osha.gov/sites/default/files/publications/OSHA37...

I don't get why the industry was not allowed to pursue low-silica engineered stone

From what I can tell, the law itself allows for products under 1% silica. Now where did I read that ...

"According to the ministers’ communique, exceptions will be introduced for the removal, repair, minor modification or disposal of engineered stone installed before 1 July 2024, as well as for products with trace levels of silica under 1%."

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/dec/13/engin...

Yes, that is a massively higher hurdle than natural stone has to meet.

Wearing PPE is miserable. The respiratory masks that reliably keep silica out of your lungs are painful. My job involves working with silica powders and I can really only handle about 20-30 minutes decked out in my bunny suit, respirator, over eye goggles, gloves and disposable sleeves before I need to take a break for air. This is in a climate controlled environment with a minimally physical set of tasks.

Having workers wear PPE is the worst, last resort form of protection. Solutions like switching to safer materials and improving ventilation work much better in practice.

PPE is the wrong solution here. Tools that don’t produce dust are the right solution.

Wet tile saws and waterjets can cut stone (and engineered stone) with essentially no dust. An angle grinder with a dust shroud and HEPA filtered extractor (total cost starts around $400) can do the same thing a regular angle grinder does but with a lot less dust.

And one really can work all day in a pouch-style N95 mask. They don’t collect much more than 95% of fine dust, but they do work, they’re easy to fit, and they’re easy to breathe through. I would wear one for added protection if I were using an angle grinder with a dust extractor. (Although I might use a full mask respirator instead for eye protection. And PAPRs are pretty great if rather expensive.)

Honestly, a huge innovation in the quality and comfort of respirators would be a massive safety revolution.

If we can make earbuds comfortable enough so that people can wear them 8 hours a day, there's got to be something to do for breathing.

Granite countertops are cheaper, more durable and have better thermal resistance than artificial stone ones.

I have a 1940s house with solid timber benchtops, yes they take a little more care (no hot pans) but from what I hear stone counters stain easily anyway. The nice thing about wood is you can just sand it back and refinish and it will look amazing again. Large slabs are pretty expensive these days so when installing a kitchen downstairs we went with finger jointed timber, was cheaper than stone and slightly more expensive than engineered stone.

Aesthetically they're ugly but stainless steel is probably the best in terms of cost, ease of maintenance and cleaning

Concrete isn't silly at all. (Google it) I actually prefer it to most of the other options.

Anecdotally, we have laminate benchtops which have been in place for ~30 years (long before we bought the house) and they're pretty much flawless, despite being treated pretty roughly. We're having the kitchen re-done soon and will go with laminate again.

Porcelain seems like the best option here.

Why is concrete silly? Concrete is can be a high end material. I guess you could treat to to make it waterproof (it is used in the bare weather after all!)

Laminate is functionally fine. There's plenty of kitchens out there with it. Just doesn't look as nice (which is really shorthand for expensive) as stone.

We have something that was called Laminex Freestyle 10-15 years ago. I think it's a resin blend? Where it cracked, we were able to have that small area replaced and remelted so the seams are not visible. It's white and cops red wine, turmeric, etc all the time and has resisted staining.

The best alternative isn't even listed: stainless steel. There's a reason commercial kitchens prefer it.

It can also me cheaper, as you don't need a solid slab of it, a 1-3mm plate of stainless glued to MDF will do.

I've had weird good luck with concrete, it was poured thick enough that the weight was causing the kitchen to sag.

The house was being sold by flippers trying to dress up a kitchen with structural mold issues, they thought concrete would be a cheap way to hide the damage.

Did you get raised reading only economic and game theory texts? Real people in the real world don't have as much agency as you'd like to think. Sometimes you take the job that you can get. See Amazon warehouse workers.

You're saying a worker should just quit their job on the spot...? And pay for rent and food....how...?

Is this satire?

a) It is truly dangerous. On par with asbestos.

b) At least here in Australia the government any by extension taxpayers will have an increased health care burden because of this. Therefore it is entirely justified to limit its use.

You are confused. This is a severe health risk which has already destroyed peoples lives, not an issue of theoretical economics, hence you got downvoted. Government is doing its job. Better and safer materials already exist.

I'm not a huge fan of government overreach either. Children should have refused to work if child labor was truly bad, and the free market would have eventually pushed child labor out, giving way to better, more ethical labor practices.

That's incredibly uncompassionate. And how is this government overreach? The government worked with the industry, and this saga has had years for engineered stone to be "pushed out". What if it took another 20 years and thousands of young people with lung cancer to reach that end? I don't see how that's worth it.

the free market would have...

With the exception of vivid imaginations, there is no free market to speak of.

Workers should have refused to work with the material if it were truly dangerous

They did -- several months ago. The relevant unions members voted to refuse to work with engineered stone at all, if it was not banned outright by the government, which is what happened yesterday.

https://www.australianunions.org.au/2023/10/24/unions-vote-t...

Workers often don't have much choice, even if they knew the harm being done to them.

australia's experience with asbestos would indicate otherwise.

The free market hasn’t been paying for the healthcare costs so far, so I don’t see why it should get to decide what is safe or not safe to use.

Markets have market failures like externalities and information asymmetry

The trade union movement says ban engineered stone or we will Media Release - October 24, 2023

https://www.actu.org.au/media-release/the-trade-union-moveme...

"the free market would have eventually pushed engineered stone out"

Lol.

Well, if you call it "government overreach" it's hard to be a fan.

Workers should have refused to work with the material if it were truly dangerous, and the free market would have eventually pushed engineered stone out, giving way to innovation for a better, safer material.

I think you need to consider this from a game theory perspective. Sometimes there are systemic negative outcomes that can only be addressed with systemic mitigations. Governments/the law serve a purpose by establishing the ground rules in which the market operates. How you structure those rules changes systemic outcomes.

Without the ground rules, UFC would devolve into people just shooting each other.

Are software devs who join unions getting paid more than those who do the classic either: (a) 2 year hops or (b) find a company that gives good rises to take you above market rate.

Solidarity brother, from a Professionals Australia member.

One standard remedy for situations like this is to mandate that, if an employee gets silicosis for any reason, their employer must pay them some large sum of money. Regardless of whose fault it was. If cutting corners saves money, then corners will inevitably be cut - but if it’s made to be more expensive than being careful, suddenly it makes good business sense to get serious about workplace safety.

I was wondering why this material is so bad, it seems to be because it is mostly silica crystals. Without the resin holding it in place such a material wouldn't be possible.

90–93%: 99.9% pure silica in grits and powder form constitutes; 7–10%: Matrix of unsaturated polyester resin with catalysts to help with ambient temperature curing, according to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engineered_stone

Technically you can safely handle it, just like technically you can have lead or even asbestos in a lot of places. But some poorly paid worker ends up with ruined health in the end, so I can totally understand the ban.

And the reason for the ban, which I think many American readers are missing. The ban was demanded by the trade unions. While the union members could probably be relied on to use PPE appropriately, they would also have to charge for it. They would lose jobs to non-union shops doing things faster and cheaper, who pass the costs onto the public when untrained workers end up in the public health system and on disability pensions.

Installers and the folks back in the shops that cut the slabs for a particular job. Many are young, hardworking trades with limited English trying to give their young families a better life. Very sad. They didn’t know how bad it is, and I bet the contractor that owns the shop didn’t know until recently either.

I recall seeing stuff about this in California

People love to talk shit about California (I don't mean OP, but generally, and increasingly), but that state gets right as much as it gets wrong. And at least it fucking does something. It's expected to pass strict regulations tomorrow on the type of stonecutting that Australia is banning. That adds up because Australia is a country that likes to ban things and America is not. That holds true even in California, which is far more pro-commerce than people seem to pretend.

But the bigger point is that outside of Australia and California, a small but tragic number of working people will continue to die a rough and premature death because most states, countries, counties, whatever jurisdiction, don't have the basic competency and clear-sightedness to pass laws that cause no one true harm but save literal human lives.

https://www.kqed.org/news/11969381/california-regulators-to-...

Sure. And asbestos is safe if handled correctly. But it never works out that way. Costs are cut. Companies want to make more profit.

And who pays? The low paid workers.

the industry was given an opportunity to implement improvements.

it didn't.

then you surrendered enforcement to only those with market exploited money....whose incentive is to fight against rather than enforce it...

This is why governments tend to enforce as they tend to minimally align with protecting the individual since they loose tax revenue if they do not...

Thats one of reasons why LLC (Limited Liability Company) was invented.

If a worker gets sick, they could sue for damages,

Maybe I’m misreading it, but from the article, comments here, and linked alternative readings (as well as very limited personal experience), the issue could be that the workers themselves are actively not participating in wearing PPE. I know this sounds like blaming the victim, but if that is truly what’s happening (and I’d appreciate information explaining the opposite), why should the workers get to sue someone else? Is the PPE not effective enough?

Or are you suggesting that allowing the employee to sue would create incentives for the employers to actually enforce the workers use PPE?

Engineered stone is cheaper than "real" stone (granite) and sturdier than other alternatives (mostly wood-based materials). But no, the world won't end because of this ban. What people are getting worked up about is that stone has been worked on for centuries, and will also keep being worked on in the future, and there are proven methods of preventing silicosis while working on it (wearing PPE, vacuuming up the dust ASAP etc.), but the Australian government chose not to do anything about the culture of ignoring the dangers and instead took the short-sighted alternative of banning just one of the many possible causes of silicosis...

I'm strongly in favour of banning engineered stone countertops because they are extremely tacky.

In the U.S., Corian is a popular brand of engineered stone. Pretty common for kitchens and bathrooms.

"quartz" countertops.

Saw dust causes lung cancer, so we should definitely outlaw using wood.

My guess is that evolution in general has adapted on some level to dust from granite. It was around before land based animals. Just like it has adapted to trace quantities of other poisonous and harmful stuff.

Engineered stone might not be exact analogy granite dust, but different in way that prevent these mechanism to be effective.

need more what-about-ism,

In 2022, coal-fired electricity was 55.9% of the combined NEM and SWIS generation (and it is trending down).

I live in the UK and used to be an electrician. What you say is for the most part true; on any commercial or industrial site or construction project, the building or site manager is going to come down hard on you if you're not using appropriate PPE. It's a liability and ass-covering thing: if you get injured (or indeed killed), even if it's entirely your fault and would have been avoided by using PPE, the manager is liable, and HSE will bury them. They know this, and they will expel you from the site if you don't comply.

That said, it's all a wash in residential. I've seen plenty of plumbers and heating engineers drilling walls without any eye or ear protection. I've seen plenty of heating engineers soldering copper pipes without a mask and in poor ventilation (e.g. tight cupboards). I've even seen other electricians installing meter tails into a live supply without any gloves, standing on conductive surfaces like surface drainage grates.

Which part of Europe? Ppe is very much mandatory with big fucking signs on every site displaying what is required where i am. And I mean every [legal] site*. A site without a sign invites a lot of questions. When I had my building renovated, the builder tried to work without a sign....no chance! By registering, and displaying the sign, it meant he had to follow the rules. I never saw similar in the uk (for example on a house), but I also wasn't looking, despite labouring for several years there.

Interestingly or unsurprisingly considering we're still accidentally importing building materials and even toys filled with asbestos from China. Add vapes to that it feels like there is almost zero regulation on importation of dangerous goods.

[1]: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-11-09/asbestos-found-in-imp...

[2]: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-02-14/australian-building-s...

Do you really think this wasn't considered?

Any Aussies to confirm this isn’t some sort of lobbying stunt?

Yeah there was a recent visit by rock-rich Croatian foreign ministry that heavy handed its small Aussie counterparts and pressured them on banning a whole industry :)

Trade unions were involved in the push for the ban. So, rather than cynical motives, it might actually just be regular old "the health and safety of workers" behind it.

Quote: "The federal government will also impose a ban on imported engineered stone to provide an "additional layer of enforcement and deterrence at the border", however the date has not been finalised yet."

Dangers from PFAS are mostly speculative and inferred. Silicosis is proven and real. Totally different things.