Online Silica Awareness Course

Asbestos and Silica Awareness are passionate about giving Australians nationally recognised knowledge, skills and tools to stay safe around silica products and instilling confidence in our students to support and protect their co-workers, clients and families from silica exposure.

In the past, companies or individuals seeking to complete silica awareness training would have had to arrange for a facilitator to come on-site or arrange for staff and enrolled parties to attend the course at a training facility.

This traditional training model can cost businesses significantly in terms of lost productivity, time in commute, and even impact personal staff time.

Our Silica specialists at Asbestos and Silica Awareness have developed the silica awareness course that is 100% online and on-demand, meaning students can move through the course at their own pace, from the comfort of their own laptop, tablet or smartphone.

What sets this course apart from others is that you can start today online. Once the course has been successfully completed you will receive your certificate.

The importance of asbestos awareness training!

Silica is in many of our building, construction and fabrication materials in Australia. Many Australians are at risk of silica exposure because of the diversity of natural and artificial products containing silica.

Though the dangers of silica dust exposure are well known, silica has been getting a lot more press in recent times due to people getting ill from exposure to silica dust.

When inhaled, silica is harmful to human health and linked to various adverse health conditions, mostly involving the lungs. Sickness from silica exposure happens slowly, and many of the associated conditions are fatal.

It is vital for people working in trades or industries with high silica exposure risks to be educated about the identification of silica products, the precautions to take, the legalities and SafeWork and Government protocols that have been put in place surrounding the silica exposure problem.

With so many common building and construction materials using silica products, exposure to trade and industry workers has been high across many industries.

Examples of industries with a high risk of silica exposure include, but are not limited to:

• Cement or stone benchtop fabrication and installation
• Brick manufacturers
• Building and construction
• Brick and mortar work
• Concreting
• Landscaping and gardening
• Earthworks
• Tilers and pavers
• Demolition workers
• Road and civil construction
• All mining industries
• Sandblasting and casting
• Glass and ceramics industries
• Farming and more

If you work in or adjacent to any of these industries, it is highly recommended that you undertake a silica awareness course.

Silica, or silicon dioxide, is a naturally occurring compound found in natural and fabricated products. While there are many sub-variants of silica, all will fall under two categories; non-crystalline and crystalline.

Crystalline silica is a stable compound of silicon and oxygen. Silica is bound by silicon and oxygen bonds to form polymorphs, which is the ability of a specific chemical to crystalise in more than one form.

Silica's chemical structure is organised in a framework pattern, the arrangement of which sees oxygen and silicon atoms form in three directions which create crystalline silica. Silica makes up 59%of the earth's crust, making it one of nature's most abundant compounds, with quartz being one of the most concentrated forms of natural crystalline silica.

Silica is found at various levels in many natural products, including:

• Natural stone
• Asphalt compounds
• Cement
• Mortar 
• Grout
• Concrete 
• Concrete blocks and fibre cement products
• Bricks, pavers and tiles
• Sand and metal
• Natural unrefined sand and more

As you can see, silica is abundant in compounds and products made primarily of natural earth elements. However, while silica is harmless in its solid or contained form, silica dust is highly hazardous to humans in powder form.

Silica dust is often created by industrial manipulation, like:

• Cutting
• Grinding
• Breaking
• Smashing
• Sanding
• Scraping

One of the primary industries where silica dust exposure is high is the stone benchtop industry, which has had a lot of press in Australia in recent decades due to natural or fabricated stone benchtops concentrated silica content.

Unlike asbestos, silica is so naturally abundant it is hard to ban, regulate or restrict. The best way to avoid silica exposure is through personal protection, safety protocols and proper education.

Silica in Australia

The Australian Government and SafeWork Australia have a silica workplace exposure standard for respirable crystalline silica, which states that airborne silica levels must not exceed 0.05 mg/m3v over an eight-hour time-weighted average.

There are also minimum health monitoring requirements, which include:

• Collection of demographic, medical and occupational history 
• Records of personal exposure to silica 
• A standardised respiratory questionnaire 
• A standardised respiratory function test
• Chest X-Ray full PA view for baseline and high-risk workers

For further information about duties for health monitoring, head to www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au.

Silica particles are 100-times smaller than a grain of sand. When inhaled or ingested, silica wrecks havoc on the lungs and other parts of the body. 

According to the Australia Cancer Council, in 2011, it was estimated that approximately 587,000 Australian workers were exposed to silica dust. It is predicted that around 5758 of these workers will develop lung cancer due to the exposure.

Silica and the artificial stone benchtop industry

Silicosis has been strongly linked to the mining industry; however, in 2015, the first of many workers in the artificial stone benchtop industry was found to have severe silicosis, and the cases continue to rise.

Artificial stone benchtops are considerably cheaper than a natural stone slab; therefore, they are popular for home builders and have been installed in thousands of Australian homes.

Though artificial stone benchtops pose little to no threat to homeowners, it is apparent that they could be life-altering and potentially fatal to our tradies and workers in the artificial stone benchtop industry.

Artificial stone benchtops are generally made from approximately 95% quartz aggregates bound together with colour pigments and polymer resins. 

Quartz is one of the most silica concentrated natural substances. These artificial stone benchtops, fabricators, and installers are exposed to 95% crystalline silica when they create dust via cutting, chipping, breaking, or grinding the synthetic stone composites. 

If you work in the artificial stone benchtop industry or adjacent to it, then this course will provide you with valuable knowledge and skillsets in one of the highest silica exposure risk industries in the world.

Read on to learn more about the adverse health conditions associated with silica exposure, and learn about our online silica awareness course content.

Silica and dangers to human health

Silica exposure and its adverse effects on human health are well documented, with Dr Bernardino Ramazzini, considered the founder of occupational medicine, identifying silicosis in stone cutters in the early 1700s.

Dr Alice Hamilton, a pioneer in health and safety reforms, documented silica-related illnesses in the early 1900s in US granite workers. By the 1930s, ventilation protocols and technologies were starting to be implemented in industries with high silica exposure risk.

Although many adverse health conditions are directly linked to silica exposure, silicosis is the most well-known.

What is silicosis?

Silicosis is categorised as a type of pulmonary fibrosis, which is a lung disease caused as a result of silica inhalation. Over time, silica particles cause scarring, inflammation and nodules in the lungs, reducing the lung's ability to function optimally.

In extreme cases, this progressive scarring leads to severe fibrosis, known as Progressive Massive Fibrosis (PMF). Patients with this condition suffer extreme scarring and subsequent stiffening or hardening of the lung tissue, making breathing increasingly harder.

In 2019, it was estimated that there were approximately 350-cases of silicosis nationwide, with cases on the rise. Though there is a treatment to slow down the effects of silicosis when detected early, there is no cure, and it cannot be reversed.

Although silicosis is the most prominent lung disease from silica dust, other adverse and potentially fatal health conditions can arise due to silica exposure.

A summary of the many adverse health conditions associated with silica exposure include:

• Acute silicosis 
• Accelerated silicosis 
• Chronic silicosis 
• Lung cancer 
• Chronic bronchitis
• Tuberculosis
• Emphysema 
• Kidney damage
• Scleroderma and more

Symptoms of silicosis progress slowly and can take between ten to thirty years to become apparent. Unfortunately, these diseases and lung conditions can have a faster onset or be exacerbated in smokers.

While some advocates have pushed for a ban on silica-containing products, similar to asbestos, the natural abundance of silica in such a wide range of products makes a ban unlikely and difficult to manage.

The best defence against silica exposure is education, protection and skills, all of which can be learned in our silica online course. Read on to learn more about our 100% online, on-demand silica awareness course.