If you walk into a Costco, Home Depot or Lowe’s and order a countertop for your kitchen renovation, the store will likely contract with a local fabrication shop, instructing them to make one from a .
Often marketed as “quartz,” engineered stone is a synthetic product that contains up to 95% finely ground quartz mixed with polyester resins and pigments. The ease with which consumers can order it obscures the fact that workers who cut, grind and polish these kitchen countertops risk developing a terrible disease that destroys their lungs.
In California alone, more than 550 workers have been caused by this engineered stone – that is totally preventable and for which there is no cure. At least 100 of these California workers have undergone or are awaiting a lung transplant, a complicated procedure that extends life but does not provide a long-term cure. At least 30 have died between 2019 and 2026.
We are an and a , both specializing in work-related diseases, who have studied the dangers of working with this material. We believe that the surge in silicosis cases is a public health emergency. But the trend is almost invisible outside of California because most states don’t yet track the incidence of the disease.
A fashionable but dangerous material
Engineered stone, introduced just a few decades ago, has become the . It is more durable but often less expensive than marble.
When workers cut, grind and polish these engineered stone countertops for a home, coated with resins and pigments are released. The workers inhale these particles, and many develop a .
Like , silica causes both respiratory disease and lung cancer. The – the median age of the California workers is 46 and the median age at death is 52. If they stop working with silica and manage to live a few additional decades, they are more likely to develop than people with no exposure.
An estimated are employed in countertop fabrication shops in the U.S., and studies suggest that . Treating it can cost millions of dollars per person. Most of the medical costs funded by American taxpayers.
Unfortunately, many fabrication workers don’t have access to healthcare – let alone specialists trained to diagnose and treat silicosis.
Many big-box stores promote quartz over similar but much safer countertops manufactured from crushed glass; these are made from amorphous silica, which is much less toxic than crystalline silica. Consumers are generally not aware of the .
. Home Depot, Lowe’s and Costco are still selling crystalline silica products as of June 2026.
Rising cases, emerging lawsuits
In 2016, during the period one of us (David Michaels) served as the assistant secretary of labor for the , or OSHA, the agency to airborne silica dust.
Complying with the federal OSHA standard is from the extreme toxic effects of engineered stone.
In 2019, after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of silicosis from working with engineered stone across California, Colorado, Texas and Washington, epidemiologists in California began tracking the disease among fabrication shopworkers. Each year since, the number of cases was . It is clear that as long as crystalline silica-containing engineered stone is used to fabricate kitchen countertops, hundreds of young workers will be diagnosed with silicosis every year.
In the U.S., cases of silicosis have been reported in several other states, including Massachusetts, Illinois, New York, Florida, Utah, Washington, New Mexico and Colorado. But since most fabrication workers are not tested for silicosis in the U.S., thousands more undiagnosed workers are undoubtedly suffering with it.
Now, hundreds of sick workers across the U.S. are of these deadly countertops, as well as the big-box stores that sell them. Some of the early cases were settled out of court. In 2024, in the , a 36-year-old worker with silicosis who underwent double lung transplantation while on life support was awarded US$52 million.
A growing global epidemic
Outbreaks of silicosis have followed the introduction of engineered stone countertop production across the globe.
Caesarstone, an Israeli company, was one of the first to market it. Between 1997 and 2010, 25 Israeli workers who had worked with its products were .
Engineered stone silicosis was next diagnosed in Spain, with between 2007 and 2024. In 2023, the owner of a Spanish company called Cosentino admitted to covering up the dangers from working with the material and received a six-month suspended prison sentence for five counts of , according to press reports.
As sales of the new product grew globally, cases of silicosis among countertop fabrication workers appeared in the in 2014, in 2015, and more recently in , and .
In May 2026, responding to the silicosis deaths of young workers, Britain issued new guidance , and announced plans to inspect 1,000 fabrication shops.
In Australia, public health officials . When those steps were found to be inadequately effective in controlling exposure to the deadly dust, the national government banned the importation and use of engineered stone products .
To continue to sell their product in Australia, many manufacturers, including Caesarstone and Cosentino, now market slabs that are made from crushed glass rather than quartz.
Stopping engineered stone silicosis in the US
In 2024, California’s OSHA adopted a stronger than the existing federal rules. However, enforcement – both statewide and nationally – is disastrously underresourced. Federal OSHA has enough inspectors to visit every workplace only .
Further, since employers claim that , their workplaces are not under OSHA’s jurisdiction.
Following Australia’s example, California’s OSHA has started emergency rulemaking to of engineered stone products that contain more than 1% crystalline silica. The countertop manufacturers are pushing back by promoting , allowing them to market engineered stone without incurring any liability.
Until manufacturers stop manufacturing and retailers follow Ikea’s lead and stop selling engineered stone countertops containing crystalline silica in the U.S., thousands of workers will continue to be exposed to deadly dust, and far too many will .
Original article
Comments