Engineered stone is making California workers sick

Employees making artificial-stone slabs for the most well-liked kind of counter tops offered in the US are creating a probably lethal, irreversible lung illness from tiny particles of poisonous mud, researchers from UC San Francisco and UCLA discovered within the largest U.S. research of this rising well being disaster.

When the artificial quartz is reduce, floor and polished, lung-damaging mud is launched into the air, resulting in a illness known as silicosis. The illness has plagued miners and cutters of pure stone for hundreds of years, however the engineered stone is much extra harmful as a result of its excessive focus of silica, a pure product in sandstone, and the dangerous polymer resins and dyes which are added to the engineered product.

This rising occupational hazard has been sickening and claiming the lives of staff, predominantly younger Latino males, at an alarming fee for the reason that first U.S. silicosis case as a result of engineered stone was reported in 2015, in keeping with the research revealed within the July 24, 2023, version of JAMA Inner Medication.

“Growing case counts of silicosis amongst stone fabricators during the last 10 years and accelerated development of illness transforms the paradigm of an all-but-previously-forgotten illness within the U.S.,” mentioned Jane Fazio, MD, a pulmonary specialist at Olive View-UCLA Medical Middle and co-author of the research. “Our research demonstrates extreme morbidity and mortality amongst a very susceptible group of younger underinsured and sure undocumented Latino immigrant staff.”

The human price of engineered quartz

The chance of silicosis from synthetic stone was first recognized in Israel in 2012. Because the first U.S. case of silicosis linked to engineered stone was recognized in Texas in 2015, California has change into an epicenter of the illness.

Researchers from UCSF and UCLA collaborated with the united states California Labor Laboratory and the California Division of Public Well being to determine 52 California engineered-stone staff recognized with silicosis, 51 of whom have been Latino immigrants. Most have been recognized between 2019 and 2022. Twenty of the sufferers had superior illness at prognosis, and have 10 died. Their median age was 45 years previous, with a mean work historical past of 15 years.

One among them is Leobardo Segura-Meza, who was born in Mexico and immigrated to the U.S. in 2012. He discovered employment in Los Angeles as a stone employee 10 years in the past, slicing and grinding on the age of 17.

Regardless of taking well being precautions by sporting a masks and utilizing dust-reducing instruments, Segura-Meza went to the emergency room with shortness of breath in February 2022, and a lung biopsy revealed he had silicosis. The 27-year-old has been on an oxygen tank since then and might now not financially assist his spouse and three younger kids.

Whereas Segura-Meza has been authorised for a lung transplant, he fears he’ll run out of time. Two fellow stone staff died whereas on the ready checklist. “Each day I hope that the telephone rings telling me to return to the hospital to get my new lungs,” mentioned Segura-Meza, who was hospitalized final month with a collapsed lung.

Calling for change to cease killer stone

The research’s authors known as for public well being officers, clinicians and policymakers to implement measures to higher shield staff from publicity to silica mud, extra rapidly diagnose the illness and even ban the product.

“Our paper raises the alarm,” mentioned Sheiphali Gandhi, a UCSF pulmonologist and co-author of the research. “If we do not cease it now, we’ll have lots of if not hundreds of extra instances. Even when we stopped it now, we’ll be seeing these instances for the subsequent decade as a result of it takes years to develop.”

No nation has but banned the product, however Australia has thought of it and is creating new rules to assist cut back the chance of silicosis via such necessities as higher air monitoring, coaching and reporting. In California, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors is weighing a possible ban, and the state’s Division of Occupational Security and Well being, referred to as Cal/OSHA, has begun drafting emergency guidelines.

The research’s authors additionally known as for early prognosis and minimizing additional publicity, each of that are difficult as a result of lack of well being care entry and the necessity for staff to assist their households. Of the sufferers within the research, 45% continued working after their prognosis.