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e-Toolkit

Silicosis and dust-related diseases

A note from our CEO
Section I: Taking action to eliminate silicosis and dust-related diseases
Ideal management approaches
Current challenges and uncertainties
National action plans and strategies for silicosis/dust diseases
Potential issues arising from action
Section II: Country summaries, case studies and resources
Silica country summaries – Australia
Silica country summaries – International
Pneumoconiosis case studies
Research on silicosis and dust-related diseases
Section III: What silica and other occupational dusts are and the risks they pose
Mineralogical features of silica
Other dust/fume-related exposures
Exposure pathways
Historical progression of silica and other dust-related diseases
Section IV: Health impacts of exposure to asbestos
What are dust/fume-related diseases?
How are dust-related diseases diagnosed?
Clinical features of silicosis and other dust-related diseases
Patient support, care and information
Reporting, coding and registration of occupational dust-related diseases

National Occupational Respiratory Disease Registry (NORDR)

About the registry

Occupational respiratory diseases are respiratory diseases caused by hazards in a person’s work or workplace.

The National Occupational Respiratory Disease Registry stores data on occupational respiratory diseases in Australia.

This was a recommendation of the National Dust Disease Taskforce.

In their response to the final report of the National Dust Disease Taskforce, all governments have committed to:

  • reducing silicosis and other dust diseases among workers
  • improving the quality of life for people affected and their families.

Goals

The registry aims to capture and share data on workplace exposures and the number of occupational respiratory diseases in Australia. This will help us to:

  • detect new and emerging threats to the health of workers
  • understand the nature and extent of occupational respiratory diseases in Australia and their trends over time
  • identify the industries, occupations, job tasks and workplaces that are at risk
  • use targeted early intervention and prevention activities to reduce worker exposure and disease
  • enhance preventative policy development, programs and decision making
  • plan, deliver and promote health care and related services for occupational respiratory diseases
  • share information with healthcare providers when providing occupational respiratory diseases related health care
  • support research projects and identify opportunities for clinical trials or observations.

Use of registry information

We share information in the registry with state and territory health agencies and work health and safety agencies.

They can use this data to:

  • understand how widespread occupational respiratory diseases are in their state or territory
  • help decide on ways to reduce worker exposure.

The information will also be available to ethics committee approved research projects to support occupational respiratory diseases research into:

  • the nature of occupational respiratory diseases and their risk factors
  • incidence, prevalence and trends
  • ways to reduce the risks to workers.

We publish an interactive dashboard containing data from the national registry. The dashboard is updated on the first day of each month. This does not include any personal information.

We also publish annual statistics on the number and types of occupational respiratory disease notifications collected in the registry. This does not include any personal information.

Existing state registers

State and territory representatives took part in the registry design process to align the data items and diseases with existing registers.

The Queensland Dust Lung Disease Register was closed on 23 September 2025. All notifiable dust lung diseases that were previously reported to the Queensland register are now reported to the national registry.

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