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https://laist.com/news/health/california-may-ban-artificial-stone-counter tops-lung-disease-outbreak
California is considering prohibiting the fabrication and installation
of artificial-stone countertops u effectively banning the products u in response to an epidemic of the fatal lung disease silicosis among
workers who cut, grind and polish countertop slabs before they are
fitted into homes and businesses.
Silicosis is caused by the inhalation of pulverized silica, one of the
most common minerals on earth. Public Health Watch, LAist and Univision
were the first to disclose a silicosis cluster among Southern California countertop fabrication workers in December 2022. A year later, the
California Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board adopted an
emergency temporary standard that required the employers of such workers
u most of whom are young, immigrant men u to suppress toxic silica dust
with water and take other protective measures. That standard became
permanent in December 2024.
Five months after the initial stories were released by Public Health
Watch and its media partners, the California Department of Public Health
had confirmed 69 cases of silicosis statewide. As of April 8, that
number had grown to 542, with 29 deaths. More than half of these cases u
279 u came from Los Angeles County.
Health
California may ban artificial stone countertops after lung disease
outbreak A Latino man wearing a blue sweatshirt and blue LA Dodgers
baseball cap looks downward. He has a black moustache and goatee.
Plastic tubing to help him breathe is tucked into each nostril and runs
over his cheeks toward the back of his head. Juan Gonzalez Morin died at
37 in 2023 after cutting and grinding artificial stone countertops in
the Los Angeles area. (
Trevor Stamp
/
LAist
)
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California is considering prohibiting the fabrication and installation
of artificial-stone countertops u effectively banning the products u in response to an epidemic of the fatal lung disease silicosis among
workers who cut, grind and polish countertop slabs before they are
fitted into homes and businesses.
Silicosis is caused by the inhalation of pulverized silica, one of the
most common minerals on earth. Public Health Watch, LAist and Univision
were the first to disclose a silicosis cluster among Southern California countertop fabrication workers in December 2022. A year later, the
California Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board adopted an
emergency temporary standard that required the employers of such workers
u most of whom are young, immigrant men u to suppress toxic silica dust
with water and take other protective measures. That standard became
permanent in December 2024.
Five months after the initial stories were released by Public Health
Watch and its media partners, the California Department of Public Health
had confirmed 69 cases of silicosis statewide. As of April 8, that
number had grown to 542, with 29 deaths. More than half of these cases u
279 u came from Los Angeles County.
Read the initial investigation
A man with slightly dark skin tone with a beard and moustache, wearing a baseball cap and a grey sweatshirt and with plastic tubing leading from
his nostrils back over his ears towards the back of his head, looks at
the camera. Yellow letters on his sweatshirt spell out Thrasher, and
there are flames coming out of the top of each letter of the word.
Ancient lung disease strikes LA countertop cutters Since Jan. 2016, at
least 30 stone fabricators in the L.A. area have been diagnosed with an incurable, and deadly, dust-related illness. The evidence suggests
silica-rich synthetic stone is to blame. Keep up with LAist.
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What is silica?
The silica that threatens the fabricatorsA lungs comes from quartz,
which is crushed and mixed with resins and pigments to make artificial
stone u also known as engineered stone u a cheaper, more versatile
alternative to natural stone like granite or marble. The ingredients are
poured into molds, a process that allows for mass production of
countertop slabs.
When a slab is cut, ground or polished in preparation for installation,
a pestilent powder is released into the air and drawn into workersA
lungs, where it collects and causes slow suffocation. There is no cure
for silicosis; the only procedure that can buy some victims time is a double-lung transplant, which is expensive, cumbersome and rarely
prolongs life beyond 10 years.
Why is California considering banning engineered stone?
The Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board is scheduled to take
video testimony from fabrication workers suffering from silicosis at its meeting Thursday in Santa Rosa. It is not expected to vote on a ban,
however, any sooner than its May 21 meeting in Los Angeles.
Should California choose to ban engineered stone, it would be the first
state to do so. Australia banned the material in 2024 after experiencing
a silicosis outbreak that claimed an estimated 1,000 victims.
The standards board is required to respond to a petition submitted in
December by the Western Occupational and Environmental Medical
Association, a nonprofit that represents more than 600 physicians and
other health experts in seven states. In that petition, the association
asked the board to oprohibit all fabrication and installation tasks ...
on engineered stone that contains more than 1% crystalline silica. This
action is necessary in light of the continuing epidemic of silicosis
that is causing disease and death among California fabrication workers
...o Engineered-stone countertops typically contain more than 90%
crystalline silica, the most common and dangerous form of the mineral;
another form, amorphous silica, is not believed to pose serious health
risks.
Lawyers representing hundreds of sick workers and their families in
litigation against countertop manufacturers say engineered stone cannot
be handled safely.
oArtificial stone is too toxic to be safely fabricated,o said Raphael
Metzger, who practices in Long Beach and won a $52.4 million jury
verdict u the nationAs first u against 34 manufacturers in August 2024.
oEvery week I meet with about a half-dozen fabricators, many of whom
have silicosis.o
oThe silicosis crisis is not a failure of rules u itAs a failure of a
product,o said James Nevin, based in Novato, California. The medical associationAs oproposed ban works because it removes that hazard at its
source. Every jurisdiction that has reduced disease has done so by
eliminating crystalline silica artificial stone itself u not by
pretending it can be used safely.o
Countertop manufacturers are not standing by quietly. In a March 27
letter to the standards board, Cosentino North America, part of SpainAs Cosentino Group, said, oEffective [workplace safety] standards already
exist, but there are non-compliant fabrication shop owners that do not implement them and put their workers at risk.o With othe correct
controls in place,o the company said, oengineered stone can be
fabricated safely.o
Cal/OSHA enforces silica rule
CaliforniaAs silica rule is enforced by the stateAs Division of
Occupational Safety and Health, known as Cal/OSHA. In a statement to
Public Health Watch, a Cal/OSHA spokesperson said the agency had opened
more than 140 inspections of fabrication shops since the emergency
temporary standard took effect in December 2023. Those inspections
unearthed more than 580 violations, the spokesperson said.
In a presentation to the standards board at its March meeting, Eric
Berg, Cal/OSHAAs deputy chief for health, research and standards, said
the agency had assessed a total of $1.8 million in penalties against fabrication shop owners alleged to have violated the silica rule.
Stop-work orders were issued to 26 shops where dry-cutting of artificial
stone u a prohibited practice u or inadequate respiratory-protection
measures were observed, Berg said.
Last year, Cal/OSHA estimated that the state had 920 fabrication shops, employing some 4,600 workers.
It's unclear which way the standards board will go when the proposed ban
comes up for a vote. In a February 27 letter, Chairman Joseph M. Alioto
Jr. urged district attorneys in the seven counties that account for
nearly 95% of the silicosis cases in California to pursue criminal
charges against violators.
oPlease do not be misled by the misdemeanor classification of [silica violations],o Alioto wrote. oThese are no ordinary misdemeanor cases, as
the science bears out. Dry-cutting on its own will result in serious
injury in a majority of cases. That means that every successful
misdemeanor you prosecute will shutter a violating employer and save
workersA lives.o
The medical association on whose petition the board must rule, however,
argued that oeducation and enforcement alone will not be sufficient to
curtail the escalating occupational health emergency caused byo
engineered stone.
After Australia banned the material, alternatives with the same
oquality, look and feelo but free of crystalline silica took its place,
the petition says. If the standards board follows AustraliaAs lead, oit
is highly likely that these safer products will be made immediately
available in the California market, without significant economic
consequences for fabrication businesses and their workers.o
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