About the Notifiable Dust Lung Disease Register

The Public Health Act 2005 and the Public Health Regulation 2018 provide a legislative framework for Queensland Health to establish a Notifiable Dust Lung Disease Register (NDLD Register), which commenced on 1 July 2019.

The NDLD Register was established in response to the emergence of occupational dust lung diseases, including coal workers’ pneumoconiosis and silicosis. The register allows Queensland Health to monitor and analyse the incidence of these notifiable dust lung diseases.

A notifiable dust lung disease is any of the following respiratory diseases when caused by occupational exposure to inorganic dust:

  • lung cancer (e.g. mesothelioma)
  • chronic obtrusive pulmonary disease, including chronic bronchitis and emphysema
  • pneumoconiosis, including
    • asbestosis
    • coal workers’ pneumoconiosis
    • mixed-dust pneumoconiosis
    • silicosis.

Examples of inorganic dust include dust from silica, coal, asbestos, natural stone, tungsten, cobalt, aluminium and beryllium.

Prescribed medical practitioners from the following specialties are required to notify the NDLD Register if they make a diagnosis of a notifiable dust lung disease:

  • occupational and environmental medicine
  • respiratory and sleep medicine.

Workers, their family members or general practitioner are not required to notify the NDLD Register of a diagnosis of a notifiable dust lung disease.

What's new?

Reporting to the National Occupational Respiratory Disease Registry

The Australian parliament recently passed legislation to establish the National Occupational Respiratory Disease Registry to record the type and extent of occupational respiratory disease in Australia.

Commencing 22 May 2024, all Australian occupational and respiratory disease specialists will be required to report diagnoses of silicosis to the national registry, and have the option to also report other occupational respiratory diseases.

Exemption from duplicate reporting requirements for Queensland practitioners

In anticipation of commencement of the national registry, amendments to the Public Health Act were passed in March 2024 to remove duplicate reporting obligations for prescribed medical practitioners (occupational and respiratory disease specialists) in Queensland.

Specifically, section 279AF of the Act has been amended to provide a new exemption where prescribed medical practitioners will not have to duplicate their reporting of notifiable dust lung disease to the NDLD Register if they have already notified the national registry.

The NDLD Register will have access to the information and data from the national registry—if a notification is made to the national registry, Queensland Health will be able to receive and record this information in the NDLD Register.

Learn more about making a notification.

More information

Last updated: 19 April 2024