This is a topic that continues to be of vital importance as a growing number of workers in the stonetop bench industry are diagnosed with accerated silicosis. Our members are at the forefront of efforts to introduce industry controls and improve clinical care for those affected. This session will provide updates on current advocacy efforts, national strategy and legislative directions, diagnostic and care initiatives, and clinical management.
Session Chair: Dr Maggie Goldie
1115 - 1135
Recommendations from the National Dust Disease Taskforce
Dr Graeme Edwards
Senior Consulting Physician, Occupational and Environmental Medicine
Silica dust related diseases are archetypal. What are the lessons learnt, institutional inertia and what’s next? Imagine what we would know about Long COVID today, if the health consequences of a respiratory hazard called SARS-Cov-2 had been entered into an existing infrastructure for a national respiratory disease registry operational in June 2020! What would we know now if we could have collated the case histories of those who have suffered and those people who are continuing to suffer. Dr Edwards will highlight the progress implementing all the recommendations of the National Dust Disease Taskforce, and what’s next on the path of putting “health” back into “work health and safety".
1135 - 1155
Silica – a journey of regulatory change
Jackii Shepherd
Senior Director, WorkSafe ACT
Addressing the re-emergence of silicosis is a complex task that has needed the co-operation, collaboration and commitment from a wide range of experts, workers, families and businesses themselves, and of course Governments across Australia. In this presentation, you will hear the journey of an occupational hygienist navigating the National and state political environments to drive evidence based change and how one small jurisdiction is going beyond the model and enforcing positive change to protect workers from exposures to respirable crystalline silica.
1155 - 1225
Respirable crystalline silica - health screening assessments
Dr Majid Rahgozar
Occupational Physician VMO, The Alfred Hospital
Established in 2021, the Alfred Hospital Occupational Respiratory Clinic is Australia’s only dedicated public hospital occupational respiratory clinic, providing comprehensive assessment and care for people at risk of developing silicosis.
In this presentation, Dr Rahgozar will outline the clinic’s approach to history taking and data collection, clinical examination and review of investigations, as well as planning.
1225 - 1300
Occupational dust lung disease detection and categorisation
Professor Catherine Jones
Radiologist, I-MED Radiology
Technological advances in medical imaging over the last five years have led to a paradigm shift in the way occupational dust lung disease is detected and characterised. Radiology now not only has the ability to detect disease, but through the rapidly emerging field of machine learning has the ability to predict future disease development and progression of current disease. This talk will outline the brave new world of individual, person-centred diagnostic care for dust disease in the era of low dose CT and artificial intelligence.
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Professor Catherine Jones | Dr Graeme Edwards | Jackii Shepherd | Dr Majid Rahgozar | WorkSafe ACT
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