Crystalline silica, which is released into the air when workers cut and polish engineered stone for kitchen countertops, can scar human lungs beyond repair.
César Manuel González, 37, used to work with stone that was engineered to endure: dense, polished slabs designed to outlast the kitchens in which they were installed. Engineered quartz countertops have surged in popularity in the home renovation market, with industry analysts estimating the global engineered stone market at around $30 billion .
It's continuing to expand as quartz surfaces replace natural stone in kitchens in the United States and worldwide. When González was working, the dust that rose from his saw didn't look extraordinary. It settled on his clothes, in his hair, across the shop floor.
In a small countertop fabrication shop, he cut marble and granite before shifting to engineered stone after the 2008-09 recession, when demand for cheaper quartz countertops surged. But the crystalline silica released while the engineered stone was cut and polished also settled into his lungs, scarring them beyond repair.
What began as breathlessness hardened into silicosis, an irreversible disease that stiffens the lungs until even ordinary movement becomes effort. A lung transplant was his path forward.
The procedure can extend survival, but it redraws the boundaries of a life: anti-rejection drugs every day, constant monitoring, vulnerability to infection, the knowledge that breathing depends on the fragile acceptance of another person's donated organ.
González, who was diagnosed with silicosis in 2023, is not alone in dealing with a disease that once was associated with miners at the end of long careers. It's now prevalent among the much younger, often Hispanic men who work in this industry, physicians and public health officials say.
In the United States, cases are appearing in countertop fabrication shops from California to Texas, Florida, and the Northeast. Because silicosis is not a nationally reportable disease and surveillance varies by state, no comprehensive national count exists.
But clinicians who treat occupational lung disease say the number of workers — often men in their 30s and 40s — diagnosed after cutting engineered stone has risen sharply over the past decade. As of early March , California had identified 519 confirmed cases of engineered-stone-associated silicosis and 29 deaths since 2019.
The median age at diagnosis is 46; at death, 49. Doctors don't debate whether working with engineered stone can scar lungs. Manufacturers argue, though, that proper ventilation, wet cutting, and respirators can make fabrication safe.
Workers, physicians, and plaintiffs' attorneys counter that a material composed almost entirely of crystalline silica may be impossible to handle safely at scale. "This is comparable to the tobacco industry saying cigarettes are safe," said Dr.
David Michaels, an assistant labor secretary under President Barack Obama who led the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. More than 370 lawsuits have been filed by workers who say engineered stone manufacturers failed to warn employees about the risks or sold a product that cannot be fabricated safely.
At the same time, members of Congress are considering legislation that would largely shield manufacturers from liability in those cases, turning a workplace health crisis into a national debate over regulation, responsibility, and the limits of civil litigation. Gustavo Reyes, 36, is part of that debate.
Like González, he spent the early years of his career cutting marble and granite before shifting to engineered stone, a quartz-based material that can contain up to 95% silica and generates far more hazardous dust when cut. In the shop, he said, cutting was done with water to control the dust. But finishing work — sanding and shaping — generated heavy dust.
He said he wore disposable respirator masks or a reusable elastomeric respirator with filters. A door was kept open. Fans ran overhead.
When he was diagnosed in 2021, he did not know what silicosis meant. The doctor told him that there was no medication and that he had three to five years to live. He received a lung transplant in 2023.
Asked who he believes is responsible, Reyes answered: "The industries who created the artificial stone, the product." Manufacturers dispute that characterization. Major companies say engineered stone can be fabricated safely when employers follow OSHA dust controls, including wet cutting, ventilation, and respirator use. Silicosis is not new.
It was synonymous with mining disasters and sandblasting, most notoriously in the Hawks Nest Tunnel tragedy , when hundreds of workers drilling through silica-rich rock in West Virginia in the early 1930s developed acute silicosis after months of unprotected exposure to dust.
In 1938, Labor Secretary Frances Perkins advised that the disease could be prevented if dust controls were conscientiously applied. What is new is the industry in which it has resurfaced.
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Source article: Disease once linked to mining hits workers in countertops industry | Source publish time: Mar 12, 2026 | Source language: en
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