California Seeks to Minimize Stone Workers’ Silica Dust Exposure
The Occupational Health Branch of the California Department of Public Health has published resources for employers and workers to minimize exposure to silica dust when working with engineered stone during countertop fabrication and installation. The branch has developed hazard warnings for both workers and employers, and has issued an occupational health alert (PDF) regarding a recent outbreak of silicosis among engineered stone fabrication workers across four states. A new page on CDPH’s website collects these resources and others from OSHA, NIOSH, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Two engineered stone fabrication workers died in 2018 in California from severe silicosis at the ages of 36 and 38. According to CDPH, both worked at a stone countertop fabrication company performing tasks such as polishing, dry cutting, and grinding slabs of engineered stone, which can contain more than 90 percent crystalline silica. A November 2019 email from CDPH states that 43 more employees at the company have been checked and almost 12 percent found to also have silicosis. The department urges stone fabrication and installation employers to follow the OSHA and Cal/OSHA standards for silica and implement necessary control measures to reduce dust levels.
“Studies have shown that the silica exposure in many of these shops is much higher than allowed under the new federal [OSHA] silica standard,” CDPH says. “It is likely that many more cases of silicosis among U.S. stone fabrication workers have occurred but are unrecognized, since few workers have been given a silicosis medical examination.”
In addition to the two California workers, CDC has identified 16 other cases of silicosis among stone workers in Colorado, Texas, and Washington since 2017. Most of the patients reported conducting tasks such as cutting and grinding engineered stone, while two reported that they were exposed to stone dust only during workplace housekeeping activities. Previously, only one case of silicosis had been reported among engineered stone fabrication workers in the United States, according to CDC. In 2018, the agency estimated that there were more than 96,000 employees in the U.S. stone fabrication industry.
Reports in other countries have confirmed the existence of multiple silicosis cases among stone workers. In February 2019, the Australian news agency ABC published information about silicosis among stone workers in the state of Queensland, where nearly 100 stoneworkers tested positive for silicosis and 15 had developed progressive massive fibrosis, a severe form of the disease. A report published in September in CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report notes that these findings “suggest that there might be many more U.S. cases that have yet to be identified.”
More information about crystalline silica is available from the websites of CDC and NIOSH. The AIHA newsletter Synergist Newswire recently featured three articles published by NPR about silicosis among U.S. countertop workers: “‘It's Going to Get Worse': How U.S. Countertop Workers Started Getting Sick,” “‘There's No Good Dust’: What Happens After Quartz Countertops Leave the Factory,” and “A New Safety Program Takes On Silica Dust Amid a Possible Crisis.” An infographic about silicosis among Queensland stone workers appears in the April 2019 Synergist.
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SILICA
“It is likely that many more cases of silicosis among U.S. stone fabrication workers have occurred but are unrecognized, since few workers have been given a silicosis medical examination.”
