Quartz countertops have been banned in Australia<\/a>, led to a criminal conviction in Spain and a multimillion-dollar jury verdict in California. Retailers, including IKEA, have discontinued them. Meanwhile, the U.S. and state governments allow unrestricted sales, even in California, despite the government\u2019s own findings of an epidemic.<\/p>\n More than 500 Californians who work with the material have, like Pe\u00f1a, contracted the disease, at a median age of 46, according to the department\u2019s Engineered Stone Silicosis Dashboard<\/a> launched last year. More than 50 needed lung transplants, and 29 have died. Underdiagnosis means the numbers are probably higher, the department said. So far this year, four dozen workers have been diagnosed.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery person on the dashboard is one more failure of the public-health worker-safety system,\u201d said Dr. Sheiphali Gandhi, an occupational-disease specialist at UC San Francisco who has treated about 30 of the workers. \u201cI see people with an incurable lung disease that was preventable. It\u2019s frustrating. At the end of the day, sometimes I\u2019m just in tears.\u201d<\/p>\n State public health officials estimated in 2023 that of the 4,000 people working in stone-fabrication shops throughout the state, up to 850 \u2014 one in five workers \u2014 would get silicosis, with as many as 160 dying.<\/p>\n \u201cMost of the time when we see patients in clinic who have this, the damage has already been done,\u201d said Dr. Ann Schraufnagel, a pulmonologist at Highland Hospital in Oakland. \u201cYou can\u2019t undo that exposure that you\u2019ve had to the silica particles.\u201d<\/p>\n Although many manufacturers have started rolling out alternatives containing less of the dangerous silica, the industry rejects assertions that the high-silica products can\u2019t be handled safely.<\/p>\n Quartz countertops have grown into an $18.4 billion global market \u2014 with nearly half of slab sales occurring in North America \u2014 thanks to durability, ease of maintenance and varied color options, according to Market Research Future<\/a>.<\/p>\n In California courts, sick and dying workers are suing quartz slab makers and countertop vendors \u2014 including several Bay Area shops, along with Home Depot, Lowe\u2019s and Costco.<\/p>\n \u201cA good analogy is asbestos,\u201d said lawyer James Nevin, whose Novato-based firm Brayton Purcell has filed nearly 400 worker lawsuits, including by Pe\u00f1a, and expects to file hundreds more. \u201cWe\u2019re terrible at banning things in this country.\u201d<\/p>\n Brayton Purcell has 111 Bay Area clients with silicosis allegedly contracted by working with engineered stone. The firm\u2019s research found that more than 300 shops in the Bay Area fabricate products using the material.<\/p>\n Makers and vendors of quartz countertops targeted in legal actions are responding with their own lawsuits against fabrication shops that employed the workers.<\/p>\n Cal\/OSHA, the state\u2019s workplace health regulator, imposed temporary \u201cemergency\u201d rules<\/a> in late 2023, expanding tasks requiring respirator masks for workers and water-added processing to catch dust. The agency is working on a permanent version.<\/p>\n Controversy over silicosis has exposed divisions in Cal\/OSHA over who\u2019s responsible for the epidemic and how to stop it. During a 2023 hearing on the proposal for the rules, Cal\/OSHA Deputy Chief Eric Berg fingered \u201cunscrupulous employers\u201d<\/a> of fabrication workers as the culprits behind the epidemic, and said the new rules would lead to \u201cmuch safer conditions for workers.\u201d However, a Cal\/OSHA staff report<\/a> on the rule proposal noted that small fabricators \u201cdo not often have the capacity\u201d to prevent silica exposure, and that processing quartz \u201cmay be so hazardous that even properly designed engineering controls and work practices may be unable to prevent \u2026 silicosis.\u201d<\/p>\n Natural stone contains 3% to 30% silica \u2014 too little to cause silicosis, medical experts say \u2014 but artificial versions are about 90%.<\/p>\n When workers saw, grind or polish quartz slabs, their tools can spew plumes of fine dust that billow into thick, pale clouds. Even when water is used to catch dust, dried splashes on surfaces and workers\u2019 clothes can let the tiny particles take flight when disturbed, doctors said. Silica particles in the dust lodge in narrow air passages in workers\u2019 lungs, leading to inflammation and scarring.<\/p>\n \u201cAs your lungs get more and more scarred, you can\u2019t absorb oxygen into your bloodstream,\u201d Gandhi said. Patients, she added, \u201cfeel like they\u2019re drowning.\u201d<\/p>\n Workers have contracted silicosis after working with quartz slabs for as little as two years, Gandhi said.<\/p>\n Still, anyone can buy quartz countertops from Costco, Home Depot or Lowe\u2019s, which will have them installed by a third party. Smaller retailers around the Bay Area sell and install the countertops, which often cost around the same as granite, and less than marble. Health experts say there\u2019s no danger from installed countertops, just from breathing dust made during processing.<\/p>\n A group representing more than 600 doctors and other health professionals, the Western Occupational and Environmental Medicine Association, claims silica dust is so dangerous that people can\u2019t safely process quartz slabs, even if masked and using equipment that includes water to combat dust. California\u2019s processing rules are not enough, so the state must ban it, the group said<\/a>.<\/p>\n Prominent quartz slab makers acknowledge that processing produces dangerous dust, but claim risks are avoidable. The International Surface Fabricators Association, representing countertop vendors, has pushed back against calls to ban quartz countertops, proposing instead the certification and licensing<\/a> of fabrication shops.<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/SJM-L-SILICOSIS-0310-4.jpg\")
A worker polishes the edge of a kitchen countertop cut from quartz slabs in the production facility in 2019. (AP Photo\/Michael Conroy)\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"Dr.](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/SJM-L-SILICOSIS-03XX-6.jpg\")
Dr. Ann Schraufnagel works at the Wilma Chan Highland Hospital Campus in Oakland, Calif., on Wednesday, March 4, 2026. Schraufnagel treats patients with silicosis, an incurable lung disease from working with quartz countertop materials. (Jane Tyska\/Bay Area News Group)\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"Jose](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/SJM-L-SILICOSIS-XXXX-5.jpg\")
Jose Pe\u00f1a of Oakland, who has silicosis, shares his story during an interview in Oakland, Calif., on Thursday, Feb. 13, 2026. Silicosis is an incurable disease caused by prolonged exposure to dust from quartz countertops. (Ray Chavez\/Bay Area News Group)\u00a0<\/p>\n