Silica dashboard

Latest news

Silica Worker Register live

The Silica Worker Register launched on 1 October 2025.

Any person conducting a business or undertaking (PCBU) directing or allowing a worker to carry out the processing of a crystalline silica substance that is high risk must register those workers. Silica worker register notifications are required within 28 days of workers commencing high risk crystalline silica processing work and can be submitted on the SafeWork NSW website. PCBUs must provide regular health monitoring to workers if there is a significant risk to their health from exposure to respirable crystalline silica.

The Tunnelling Dust Safety Taskforce held its fourth meeting on 8 October 2025.

Members tabled updates against the 10-Point Action Plan and noted the positive progress to date and agreed to prepare an end-of-year progress report for the Minister.

The taskforce noted that the Government response to the Standing committee on Law and Justice 2024 Review of the Dust Diseases Scheme was tabled in NSW Parliament on 11 September 2025. Members agreed it was important to progress the 10-Point Action Plan to deliver key aspects of the Government response to the Committee’s recommendations.

Members also noted the importance of the rewrite of the Code of Practice for Tunnels Under Construction and discussed the National Occupational Respiratory Disease Registry 12-month review, agreeing that the Taskforce would make a submission to the review.

More detail on the Taskforce’s October meeting is available on the SafeWork NSW website.

FY26 snapshot

Data is from 1 July - 31 December 2025.

Silicosis cases

123

Silica - related notices issued

SafeWork NSW compliance activities

The following information relates to SafeWork NSW’s silica workplace visit program that commenced in 2018. Data is from 2018 to 31 December 2025.

6,365

Workplace visits

Silica-related

3,849

Construction workplace visits

746

Other industries

Includes tunnelling, manufacturing, foundries and stonemasons.

1,779

Manufactured stone visits

Notices

3,133

Improvement notices

Any silica-related improvement notice

205

Prohibition notices

Issued for uncontrolled exposure to silica dust

On the spot fines

Issued for uncontrolled dry cutting

Workplace exposure standard (WES) notifications

The workplace exposure standard (WES) for respirable crystalline silica (RCS) in Australia is 0.05 mg/m¹. This is based on an 8-hour time-weighted average. There’s also an adjusted WES for longer shifts, like 12-hour shifts.

For any air monitoring conducted after 1 September 2024, it is compulsory to submit a notification to SafeWork NSW outlining any air monitoring results that exceed the WES. One notification may include one or more exceedance.

Since the WES notification system was introduced in September 2024, SafeWork has received the following notifications¹:

2025
	Qtr1			Qtr2			Qtr3			Qtr4
Industry	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sept	Oct	Nov	Dec	2025 Total
Tunnelling	9	9	9	8	17	8	4	5	8	9	4	4	94
Construction	9	9	9	8	17	8	4	5	7	8	4	4	92
Other Services	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	1	-	-	2
Non-Tunnelling	6	7	10	5	8	12	9	6	6	13	15	13	110
Construction	5	4	6	5	4	8	7	3	3	8	10	3	66
Electricity, Gas, Water and Waste Services	-	1	1	-	1	-	-	-	1	-	2	5	11
Manufacturing	-	1	-	-	2	2	2	2	1	3	3	2	18
Other Services	1	1	2	-	-	1	-	-	1	1	-	3	10
Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing	-	-	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1
Public Administration and Safety	-	-	-	-	1	-	-	1	-	1	-	-	3
Transport, Postal and Warehousing	-	-	-	-	-	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	1
Grand Total	15	16	19	13	25	20	13	11	14	22	19	17	204

2024 (From 1 September )
Industry	Total
Tunnelling	32
Construction	31
Other Services	1
Non-Tunnelling	18
Construction	9
Electricity, Gas, Water and Waste Services	2
Manufacturing	4
Other Services	3
Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing	-
Grand Total	50

NOTE: This data excludes notifications from the mining industry.

Silicosis cases identified

Where volume of data is low, data has been grouped into categories to allow reporting while maintaining privacy principles.

Graph represents the annual silicosis diagnosis notifications to SafeWork NSW.

1 July 2025 - 31 December 2025

33 cases

33 cases are male.

Silicosis sub-type

Chronic	30
Accelerated	<5
Acute	<5
Not identified	<5

Region of Birth

Australia/New Zealand	11
Europe	<5
Asia	<5
Middle East	<5
Not identified	15

Age groups

Under 21	<5
21-40	8
41-70	23
71-90	<5
90+	<5
Not identified	<5

By industry (ANZSIC)

Manufactured/Engineered Stone (2090)	9
Construction – site prep/heavy civil (3109/3212)	13
Other	11
Not identified	<5

By occupation (ANZSCO)

Engineered Stone processors (7111)	<5
Bricklayers and stonemasons (3311)	17
Construction – site prep/heavy civil (7212/8219)	<5
Tunnelling (7219)	<5
Other	12
Not identified	<5

Historical information

59 cases and 5 deaths

2024-25

NSW Dust Disease Register Annual Report 2024-25 (PDF 445.73KB)

64 cases and 10 deaths

2021-22

NSW Dust Disease Register Annual Report 2021-22 (PDF 542.96KB)

40 cases

2018-19

Prior to commencement of the NSW Dust Disease Register (data derived from icare).

115 cases and 10 deaths

2023-24

NSW Dust Disease Register Annual Report 2023-24 (PDF 728.25KB)

57 cases and 7 deaths

2020-21

NSW Dust Disease Register Annual Report 2020-21 (PDF 1.42MB)

9 cases

2017-18

Prior to commencement of the NSW Dust Disease Register (data derived from icare).

65 cases and 9 deaths

2022-23

NSW Dust Disease Register Annual Report 2022-23 (PDF 822.4KB)

107 cases

2019-20

Prior to commencement of the NSW Dust Disease Register (data derived from icare).

Resources

Crystalline silica

Crystalline silica – SafeWork NSW
Working with crystalline silica video series – SafeWork NSW. Video captions are available in Arabic, Chinese (Simplified), Korean and Vietnamese
Silica worker register – SafeWork NSW
Silica Awareness and Safety online course – Construct NSW

Engineered stone

What are crystalline silica and engineered stone – SafeWork NSW
Engineered stone ban – Safe Work Australia
Legacy engineered stone notifications – SafeWork NSW

Industry

Workplace exposure standard exceedance notifications – SafeWork NSW
The $1,000 SafeWork small business rebate is available to all eligible businesses and sole traders in NSW who buy and install equipment that makes their workplace safer.
Building and construction industry page includes resources such as the dust safety poster, toolbox talks, safety checklists and fact sheets – SafeWork NSW
YouTube videos about safely cutting bricks and concrete that contain silica using on-tool dust capture and water. Translated versions are available in Arabic and Chinese – SafeWork NSW
Working with crystalline silica substances: PCBU obligations – SafeWork NSW

Health awareness

Medical practitioner's obligation to notify of a disease page - contains information about medical practitioners’ requirement to notify the National Occupational Respiratory Disease Registry (NORDR) when they diagnose a case of silicosis – SafeWork NSW
Request a lung screening service – icare
Protect your lungs at work – Lung Foundation Australia

Codes of practice and fact sheets

Code of Practice: Managing the risks of respirable crystalline silica from engineered stone in the workplace – SafeWork NSW
Code of Practice: Tunnels Under Construction – SafeWork NSW
Code of Practice: Construction Work – SafeWork NSW
Crystalline Silica Technical Fact Sheet – SafeWork NSW
Managing the risks of hazardous chemicals in the workplace – SafeWork NSW
Preparation of safety data sheets for hazardous chemicals – SafeWork NSW
Labelling of workplace hazardous chemicals – SafeWork NSW

SafeWork NSW prosecutions

Prosecutions – SafeWork NSW

Last updated: 2 January 2026