Thousands of U.S. countertop workers could have damaged lungs, safety expert says

"“We were more worried about getting crushed by slabs or getting cut with blades and stuff like that,” he says, “not getting a lung disease.” He says he made some countertops out of granite, but mostly he cut “quartz,” a popular composite made by factories that take bits of quartz mined from quarries and mix it with binders and pigments."

"Compared to granite or marble, manufactured quartz contains far more of the mineral silica and silica dust can cause lung damage, if you breathe it in. That danger has become dramatically clear in California, where officials have been grappling with an epidemic of silicosis, an irreversible lung disease. They've tracked over 550 sickened countertop workers, almost all Hispanic men, with most of the cases emerging over the last few years."

"Over 30 workers have died, and more than 50 have had lung transplants, according to a public dashboard where the numbers keep going up. On May 21, a workplace safety board in California will vote on whether or not the state should ban the cutting of high-silica quartz countertop material, as a group of doctors has petitioned the state to do."

"Those doctors say the severity of workers' disease suggests that it's caused by exposure to toxic ingredients in addition to silica, like pigments or resins. Rebecca Shult, a lawyer for the major quartz company Cambria, said in a March hearing that her company objected to the idea that any one subset of silica-containing products was to blame. “For this reason, we take issue with the very nomenclature of 'engineered stone silicosis'” used on California's disease-tracking dashboard, she said."

Wade Hanicker makes countertops by cutting and polishing heavy stone slabs with power tools, using face masks to reduce dust exposure. He primarily works with manufactured quartz, a composite made from mined quartz mixed with binders and pigments. Manufactured quartz contains much more silica than granite or marble, and inhaled silica dust can damage lungs. California has reported an epidemic of silicosis among countertop workers, with hundreds sickened, many deaths, and numerous lung transplants. A workplace safety board is set to vote on whether to ban cutting high-silica quartz countertop material. Doctors attribute severe disease to toxic ingredients beyond silica, such as pigments or resins, while a major quartz company disputes labeling and blame focused on one product subset.

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