Posted on Jul 24, 2023
Young men making quartz countertops are facing lung damage. One state is taking action
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https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/07/24/ [login to see] /silicosis-young-workers-kitchen-countertops-lung-damage-california
California is poised to become the first state in the country to adopt special measures to protect workers who make kitchen and bathroom countertops out of a popular kind of artificial stone known as "quartz."
That's because more and more countertop workers, almost all Latino men, are coming down with an irreversible lung disease after breathing in dangerous dust while cutting and grinding quartz and other stone materials.
At least ten have died. Others have needed lung transplants.
The disease, silicosis, is caused by silica dust that can fly into the air when a raw slab of countertop material gets cut to fulfill a customer's order. While natural stone like granite contains silica, "engineered stone" made of quartz contains far more, and public health experts have been warning of its increased risk.
California is poised to become the first state in the country to adopt special measures to protect workers who make kitchen and bathroom countertops out of a popular kind of artificial stone known as "quartz."
That's because more and more countertop workers, almost all Latino men, are coming down with an irreversible lung disease after breathing in dangerous dust while cutting and grinding quartz and other stone materials.
At least ten have died. Others have needed lung transplants.
The disease, silicosis, is caused by silica dust that can fly into the air when a raw slab of countertop material gets cut to fulfill a customer's order. While natural stone like granite contains silica, "engineered stone" made of quartz contains far more, and public health experts have been warning of its increased risk.
Young men making quartz countertops are facing lung damage. One state is taking action
Posted from npr.org
State of California
Hazmat
Health
Jobs
Employment
Posted 10 mo ago
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Completely preventable if they were following OSHA standards for PPE. It's a terrible thing to have happen, but machismo will often prevent people from wearing masks or following guidelines.
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Excellent post. Thank You for sharing this shipmate. Are they not wearing a mask?
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PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
..."Occupational health experts say there's no reason to believe this problem is confined to countertop makers in California. Since the first U.S. case of silicosis in this industry emerged in Texas in 2014, other sickened workers have been found in Colorado and Washington.
One recent case report from Florida recounted severe disease in a 39-year-old undocumented immigrant from Guatemala who had been exposed to silica through "manual labor regarding stone cutting of quartz for fabrication of countertops."
"This is something that we've had, if you will, flashing warning lights about for some time," says David Goldsmith, an occupational and environmental epidemiologist at George Washington University.
An estimated 100,000 people work in this industry across the United States. One study did silicosis screening on the 43 employees of "an engineered stone countertop fabrication facility" and found that 12 percent had the disease.
If workers are undocumented or lack insurance, they may be reluctant to seek medical care, says Goldsmith, and doctors who aren't expecting to see silicosis can misdiagnose it as pneumonia or tuberculosis.
So while the new report of cases in California is a "very serious finding," he says, "I am certain that this is an underestimate of the severity of the problem in California. And, by inference, it's an underestimate of the severity of the problem in the whole United States."
..."Occupational health experts say there's no reason to believe this problem is confined to countertop makers in California. Since the first U.S. case of silicosis in this industry emerged in Texas in 2014, other sickened workers have been found in Colorado and Washington.
One recent case report from Florida recounted severe disease in a 39-year-old undocumented immigrant from Guatemala who had been exposed to silica through "manual labor regarding stone cutting of quartz for fabrication of countertops."
"This is something that we've had, if you will, flashing warning lights about for some time," says David Goldsmith, an occupational and environmental epidemiologist at George Washington University.
An estimated 100,000 people work in this industry across the United States. One study did silicosis screening on the 43 employees of "an engineered stone countertop fabrication facility" and found that 12 percent had the disease.
If workers are undocumented or lack insurance, they may be reluctant to seek medical care, says Goldsmith, and doctors who aren't expecting to see silicosis can misdiagnose it as pneumonia or tuberculosis.
So while the new report of cases in California is a "very serious finding," he says, "I am certain that this is an underestimate of the severity of the problem in California. And, by inference, it's an underestimate of the severity of the problem in the whole United States."
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