California workplace safety regulators want to completely ban kitchen quartz countertops because they are linked to an incurable lung disease in the workers who make them.<\/p>\n
The state\u2019s Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board voted to move towards prohibiting work on artificial stone to stop infection by the deadly kitchen dust, following Australia\u2019s ban<\/a> of work on the quartz material.<\/p>\n CalOSHA holds a meeting to consider a ban on all fabrication and installation tasks on engineered stone that contains more than 1% crystalline silica to prevent silicosis. CAL OSHA<\/p>\n Workers who install quartz countertops often end up suffering from silicosis, which is caused by inhaling crystalline silica <\/a>dust suffer from engineered stone.<\/p>\n The stone significantly more silica than natural materials like granite or marble, which is generated by cutting, polishing or grinding stones, especially high-silica engineered quartz.<\/p>\n Symptoms can include an irritating cough, mucus, shortness of breath, trouble breathing, fatigue, chest pain and leg swelling. While there are treatments to manage symptoms, there\u2019s no cure for silicosis. The disease can worsen as it progresses, potentially leading to lung cancer, tuberculosis and even death.<\/p>\n California\u2019s OSHA says the state is experiencing a silicosis crisis, with the number of cases surging from 52 in 2022 to 531 this year \u2013 a tenfold increase over three years. <\/p>\n That\u2019s attributed to rising demand for the stone, analysts said.<\/p>\n A ban may be needed, regulators said, as the only viable option to increase the safety of workers, who they note are predominantly Latino and foreign-born. <\/p>\n Soloviova Liudmyla \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n \u201cThe evidence is now clear that engineered stone containing crystalline silica is too toxic to fabricate and install safely, and education and enforcement alone will not be sufficient to curtail the escalating occupational health emergency caused by this product,\u201d said the Western Occupational and Environmental Medicine Association, a group of occupational physicians who are pushing for the ban.<\/p>\n But critics have blasted the proposed ban as dramatic overreach. <\/p>\n