The frightening disease turning tradies to 'stone' striking down healthy workers

A devastating illness that turns tradies to stone has emerged as just one of the autoimmune diseases striking down healthy young workers who've been exposed to silica dust at work.

Former stonemason Dave Waters was once physically strong, but at 39 he can't even lift his children anymore, let alone put on a pair of socks.

"It affects me in almost every way," Waters said about his autoimmune disease.

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Waters was 36 when he was diagnosed with mixed connective tissue disease and rheumatoid arthritis and he has no doubt it's because he worked for six years as a stonemason.

"Everything that I do, there's an element of pain in any movement," he said.

His wife Aimee said he was struck down with the disease just before their second son was born.

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"Watching that decline was really soul-destroying," she said.

At 70, Benny Zicone has spent 20 years in pain.

"I get a lot of stabbing pain in my hands, my feet, in all my joints, I get ulcers in my legs, ulcers on my knuckles, very bad pain," Mr Zicone said.

Zicone drove a forklift at a brickworks for 25 years and now he has scleroderma, a disease that turns sufferers to stone.

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"My conditions at work - there were days you couldn't breath - very dusty conditions not knowing that there was silica in the air," he said.

Zicone's wife Maria said her husband struggles to hold cutlery to eat and there's no cure.

"His body is very stiff," she said.

President of Scleroderma Australia, Amanda Lawrie-Jones, said there are 6000 sufferers in Australia but the number is increasing because of environmental factors.

"So it has come about that silica dust is probably one of those environmental factors and linked to certain occupations as well," Lawrie-Jones said.

She said the disease can cause joints to contract and have less movement, "so it is kind of like that hardness of turning your body into stone".

"These gentlemen are living in hell," lawyer Kathryn Townsend said.

Townsend heads up a department at Shine Lawyers devoted to representing the victims of diseases caused by silica dust.

"We're seeing people come to us from quarrying, from mining, from tunnelling, from stonemasonry, from all sorts of walks of life that people are being exposed to silica," Townsend said.

She claims "there is no excuse for people being exposed to these levels of dust".

"The information has been out there for a long time that these conditions can be caused by dust," Townsend said.

Waters and his wife want to know why he was allowed to work in such a "toxic" environment.

"I was really angry when I found out that I've been working in a toxic environment for such a long time," he said.

Waters said he's been told he could also develop scleroderma.

"The likelihood is my condition will deteriorate over time, with obviously the possibility of further conditions developing," he said.

Waters is seeking compensation for his suffering and Zicone has already received a payout.

All these men want now is to warn other tradies to be aware and protect themselves from breathing in silica before it's too late.

"If you feel like something isn't right … or you're just starting to feel tired or sore don't just put it off," Waters said.

"The sooner you can get yourself checked out and diagnosed and on proper medication they can start controlling the disease to stop it spiralling to the point where you're incapacitated."