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Consultation draft National Silica-Related Diseases Research Strategy
The AIOH welcomes the opportunity to respond to Safe Work Australia’s consultation draft, National Silica-Related Diseases Research Strategy (NSDRS), September 2026. This submission assesses the consultation draft against the research commitments already agreed by all Australian governments in the Silica National Strategic Plan 2024-30 (SNSP) and its Companion. The SNSP commits governments to develop, implement and maintain the NSDRS (Action 4A), and the Companion describes the research domains a national research strategy was expected to encompass. Those two documents are the benchmark used throughout this submission.
This submission is confined to research. The SNSP contains several actions that bear directly on occupational hygiene practice, including air monitoring quality (Action 1-C), product labelling (Action 1-E), workforce planning (Action 1-F) and compliance and enforcement principles (Action 1-G). Those are regulatory and workforce planning actions with their own leads and partners under the SNSP. The AIOH will continue to contribute to them through the SNSP implementation forums and does not propose that the NSDRS take them on. Where the SNSP itself identifies a research question within an action, this submission asks that the NSDRS name it.
The consultation draft provides a sound structure. It adopts the five SNSP principles, supports all three SNSP aims, addresses the substance of Action 4A, and identifies four focus areas that cover the prevention continuum. The treatment of priority populations and the inclusion of substitute materials and emerging hazards are welcome.
