Workers Are Falling Ill, Even Dying, After Making Kitchen Countertops.

[Cattledog]

Artificial stone used to make kitchen and bathroom countertops has been linked to cases of death and irreversible lung injury in workers who cut, grind and polish this increasingly popular material.

The fear is that thousands of workers in the United States who create countertops out of what's known as "engineered stone" may be inhaling dangerous amounts of lung-damaging silica dust, because engineered stone is mostly made of the mineral silica.

Jose Martinez, 37, worked for years as a polisher and cutter for a countertop company that sold engineered stone, as well as natural stone like marble. He says dust from cutting the slabs to order was everywhere.

"If you go to the bathroom, it's dust. When we go to take lunch, on the tables, it's dust," he says. "Your nose, your ears, your hair, all your body, your clothes — everything. When you walk out of the shop, you can see your steps on the floor, because of the dust."

Now, he's often weak and dizzy and has pain in his chest. He can no longer play soccer or run around with his kids. Doctors have diagnosed silicosis, a lung disease that can be progressive and has no treatment except for lung transplant. Martinez is scared after hearing that two other workers from the same company, who were also in their 30s, died of silicosis last year.

"When I go to sleep, I think about it every night — that if I'm going to die in three or four, five years?" he says, his voice breaking. "I have four kids, my wife. To be honest with you, every day I feel worse. Nothing is getting better."

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2019/10/02/766028237/workers-are-falling-ill-even-dying-after-making-kitchen-countertops?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=npr&utm_term=nprnews&utm_medium=social&fbclid=IwAR3gMoaZTj--dweD1c-JZ8OQLhvRK2I_McGhvRGY-LgXcCOGWWQJqeHhbUw&fbclid=IwAR1-FjygndJsrLlSQWuNzH9B_6qkuvw1hmiPPuKRWPvFZ144E7Lxnmbi0l4&fbclid=IwAR360CeR1nVmBerH4B6sSCE_5dJlTC0o3-x40xQZYbY06lt4oTAtsAx1gtA

[Mike 03]

1. Per the article, these workers are in California, Colorado, Texas and Washington. nt

[Flaleftist]

2. Would respirators not help?

I don't see them mentioned in the article.

[shanti]

8. First thing I thought of too

But if it gets everywhere, they probably need to be fully-suited.

[Dustlawyer]

9. Yes. They can filter the fractured silica if they use the right respirator.

Companies who do not supply this equipment and inform their workers of the danger need to be held accountable. The officers/directors/executives need to be charged with at least manslaughter! This is not new science!

Our regulatory agencies are grossly under-funded, run by industry insiders, and unable to regulate their industry at all, even if that was what was intended. We have refineries and chemical plants that are tasked with "self reporting" to OSHA and the EPA due to the lack of inspectors. Do you think that BP and the other oil companies would report the truth?

[wysimdnwyg]

17. Quality, working safety equipment is a must

At the top of that list for anyone who works with anything that creates dust is a respirator or some type of breathing filter. The level of filtration (anywhere from a surgical mask-style paper filter all the way up to a full on respirator with an air tank - think of what a firefighter wears) will, naturally, vary depending on what materials they're working, but that is an absolute requirement. As an amateur woodworker, I wear a mask every time I either cut wood or apply most finishes. Without that, the worker is going to be prone to cancer and other diseases, very similar to how coal miners used to get black lung. You breathe that dust in, and it does not come out.

[TheRealNorth]

3. Thank a conservative for strangling OSHA

Those killing regulations. Makes you think that conservatives prefer that people are killed.

[TxVietVet]

5. Conservanazis don't want businesses to have to worry about "unnecessary " regulations.

Ever since the creation of OSHA, the conservanazis have gone to great length to try to DESTROY rules that set safety standards in order to SAVE LIVES.

The conservanazis want no regulations that interfere in making a profit. To them, only fetuses only count until they get out of the womb.

[not fooled]

21. Workers are expendable

proles have reverted to serf-level status of being non-valued fodder for profits.

[zentrum]

22. Only profits matter. Free Market

.....at it's Republican best.

[MissB]

4. Horrifying

I’m hoping to gut my kitchen in the next two years; I was planning on a quartz countertop. The NPR article notes that you can look for a certain accreditation to ensure that the shop you are buying from likely provides appropriate protection for its workers.

[ooky]

16. For the price they charge for quartz countertops you would think they could

provide the appropriate protections for their workers. When I bought mine they were double the price of regular granite countertops.

[onethatcares]

6. I wonder if they'll include hardi-board installers

sometime in the future.

all of those cut/grind products produce the dusts and it's rare to see the workers suited up or using respirators or even face masks.

[LisaM]

7. A warning was issued in 2015....

None of this surprises David Michaels, an epidemiologist at George Washington University who used to run the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, a safety agency within the Department of Labor. In 2015, he says, OSHA issued a "hazard alert" warning of a significant exposure risk for workers who manufacture natural and artificial stone countertops.

"We knew we'd see more cases," says Michaels. "It's disappointing that OSHA hasn't done anything to stop these cases from occurring. These cases were predictable, and they were preventable."

- snip -

In 2016, OSHA issued new workplace limits on how much silica could be in the air. This controversial new rule reduced the permissible exposure level to half of what it had been. Safety experts hailed the new, tighter limit as an important step forward; the previous regulations had been based on decades-old science, they said. But many industry groups opposed it.

A year later, the incoming Trump administration ended the safety agency's national emphasis program for silica. That program would have allowed OSHA to target the countertop fabrication industry for special inspections, says Michaels.

[iluvtennis]

10. "incoming Trump administration ended the safety agency's national emphasis program for silica"

greed, greed, greed. unacceptable to put ppl's health at risk when simply policies could prevent it.

[Historic NY]

11. Why I bought granite....

I found out that I was allergic to silica & concrete dust.

[Mosby]

23. Granite can have uranium in it.

https://www.epa.gov/radiation/granite-countertops-and-radiation

[Happy Hoosier]

12. Proper safety gear and a dust control system in the shop a must. NT

[cbdo2007]

13. I've seen plenty of these work environments with "dust everywhere"...even my father in law's house

in his garage there is "dust everywhere" and he doesn't believe in using dust masks or respirators because he's too busy tinkering, but that's what these people need to realize.

[TygrBright]

14. I prefer laminate. If I drop a glass dish on it, there's a chance it won't shatter. n/t

[jmowreader]

15. It's worse than you think

Engineered stone countertops (one famous brand is Silestone) are made out of quartz crystals bonded together with epoxy resin.

You have both the silica dust and the epoxy resin dust (most of the epoxy on the market contains bisphenol A, aka "BPA" which everyone is worried about) flying around in the air screwing you up.

[lonely bird]

19. Bisphenol A in epoxy

Bisphenol A is reacted with epichlorohydrin to form the prepolymer prior to reacting with amines or amidoamines or polyamides. Bisphenol A diglycidyl ether is also reacted to form acrylated vinyl ester resin.

It does not appear that the Bisphenol A is “free” but that doesn’t mean it will not impact people. Epoxies using Bisphenol A have been in use since the late 1940’s. The process was basically developed by Shell Chemical and a formulating chemist at Devoe Paint. There are many uses for epoxies depending upon the end goal.

[StarryNite]

18. This is terrible!

Thank you for posting.

[gibraltar72]

20. Silica dust is deadly. Period.