Anyone who has renovated a kitchen in recent years knows how expensive stone benchtops can be. Artificial stone looks similar and is much cheaper. But it can come with a significant health burden to the maker, and the workers installing it.
Silica dust is a very fine dust produced when products such as bricks, concrete and pavers are cut or drilled. Artificial stone is a particularly potent source. When inhaled, it can scar the lungs and cause cancer.
Epidemiologists Renee Carey and Lin Fritschi estimate that without action on silica dust, Australian workers would develop more than 10,000 future lung cancers and almost 104,000 silicosis cases during their lifetime.
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Fron Jackson-Webb
Deputy Editor/Senior Health Editor
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Renee Carey, Curtin University; Lin Fritschi, Curtin University
Artificial stone, which is used mainly for kitchen benchtops, is a potent source of silica dust, which can scar the lung and cause lung cancer. Banning artificial stone could save lives.
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Erin Fitz-Henry, The University of Melbourne
Most rich white countries, including Australia, refuse to accept the climate debt they owe to poorer countries and communities.
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Robert Horvath, La Trobe University
The Russian president might claim to be confronting hate speech, but he is drawing on the ideas of anti-Semitic extremists
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Anabela Malpique, Edith Cowan University; Deborah Pino Pasternak, University of Canberra; Debora Valcan, Murdoch University; Susan Ledger, University of Newcastle
A new survey of Australian primary teachers found almost 65% of teachers never asked students to write at home with the support of a family member.
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Politics + Society
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Michelle Grattan, University of Canberra
Ensuring equal opportunities and pay for women is one of the wide range of topics laid down for the federal government’s jobs summit, to be held September 1-2.
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Adrian Beaumont, The Conversation
Census and election data show the shift in demographics of the major parties’ voting bases.
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Claire Breen, University of Waikato
A new law intended to strengthen oversight of Oranga Tamariki and other agencies tasked to protect children has the potential to do the opposite.
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Health + Medicine
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Ben Singh, University of South Australia; Carol Maher, University of South Australia
More of us are working out from home post-COVID. There are ways to help you stick to your exercise routine without a gym instructor.
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Science + Technology
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Susan Hespos, Western Sydney University
Infants approach the physical world with some ‘principled expectations’ about how it works. What happens when an AI system is programmed this way?
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James Scott, University of Otago; Michele Bannister, University of Canterbury
When the meteor exploded into pieces above New Zealand, it produced a shock wave strong enough to be picked up by earthquake seismometers. But any fragments have likely dropped into the ocean.
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Environment + Energy
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Laura Schuijers, University of Sydney
The minister will be forced to either confirm or revoke decisions made by her predecessor that 19 coal and gas projects aren’t likely to harm Australia’s protected species and places.
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Education
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Vaughan Cruickshank, University of Tasmania; Jeffrey Thomas, University of Tasmania; Kira Patterson, University of Tasmania
Lower participation and poorer performance in cross-country running by students at low-SES schools is troubling, because physical activity and fitness are closely tied to health and well-being.
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Arts + Culture
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Priya Vaughan, UNSW Sydney; Alise Blayney, UNSW Sydney; Katherine M Boydell, UNSW Sydney
Stigma and discrimination can be upsetting to talk about and hard to describe. Creative activities can help to bring these experiences to light.
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Books + Ideas
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Maggie Nolan, Australian Catholic University
Noongaar author Claire Coleman’s new novel forces us to question what we value and how we live by combining dystopia and utopia, in a near-future very like our own.
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Michael James Walsh, University of Canberra; Stephanie Alice Baker, City, University of London
We often talk about ‘emotional labour’ as performed by those who take on the emotional workload within families or relationships. But the term has a specific meaning – and that’s not what it is.
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