A stonemason who contracted a terminal lung disease is suing his former employer, claiming he was exposed to a deadly dust while helping build Parliament House in Canberra.

Frank Scott, 50, has been diagnosed with silicosis, an illness caused by breathing in silica dust. Mr Scott worked grinding, cutting and drilling the marble and granite slabs for R.M. Watson, a company contracted to help construct the new Parliament between 1986 and 1988.

Frank Scott: "I thought I would take a couple of Panadols or something and be back to work, not a lifelong sentence." Credit:Shine Lawyers

In a statement of claim filed in the ACT Supreme Court, Mr Scott says he was required to work six or seven days a week as an apprentice and had to blow the dust off the granite and marble slabs and his clothes with an air compressor. He was provided with a paper mask while working with the stone but says it did not give adequate protection.

"We just assumed that was the best protection we could get so we just used those," Mr Scott told Nine in an interview. "It's in your hair, your clothes, on your skin … sometimes you look like Casper the [Friendly] Ghost."