Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain
Workers making artificial stone slabs for the most popular type of countertops sold in the United States are developing potentially fatal, irreversible lung disease from tiny particles of toxic dust, researchers from UC San Francisco and UCLA found in the largest U.S. study of this emerging health crisis.
When the synthetic quartz is cut, ground and polished, lung-damaging dust is released into the air, leading to a disease called silicosis. The disease has plagued natural stone miners and cutters for centuries, but the engineered stone is much more dangerous due to the high concentration of silica, a natural product in sandstone, and the harmful polymer resins and dyes added to the engineered product.
This growing occupational hazard is sickening and claiming the lives of workers, mostly young Latino men, at an alarming rate since the first case of silicosis in the U.S. due to engineered stone was reported in 2015, according to the study published in the July 24, 2023 edition of JAMA Internal Medicine.
“The increasing number of cases of silicosis among stone manufacturers over the past 10 years and the accelerated progression of the disease is transforming the paradigm of a virtually forgotten disease in the U.S.,” said Jane Fazio, MD, a pulmonary specialist at Olive View-UCLA Medical Center and a co-author of the study. “Our study demonstrates severe morbidity and mortality in a particularly vulnerable group of young, underinsured and likely undocumented Latino immigrant workers.”
The human cost of engineered quartz
The risk of silicosis from artificial stone was first identified in Israel in 2012. Since the first US case of silicosis associated with artificial stone was identified in Texas in 2015, California has become an epicenter of the disease.
Researchers from UCSF and UCLA collaborated with the UCSF California Labor Laboratory and the California Department of Public Health to identify 52 California engineered stone workers diagnosed with silicosis, 51 of whom were Latino immigrants. Most were diagnosed between 2019 and 2022. Twenty of the patients had advanced disease at diagnosis and 10 have died. Their median age was 45 years, with an average employment history of 15 years.
One of them is Leobardo Segura-Meza, who was born in Mexico and emigrated to the US in 2012. He found work in Los Angeles as a stone worker 10 years ago, cutting and grinding at the age of 17.
Despite taking health precautions by wearing a mask and using dust-reduction aids, Segura-Meza went to the emergency room in February 2022 with shortness of breath, and a lung biopsy revealed he had silicosis. The 27-year-old has been on an oxygen tank ever since and is no longer able to financially support his wife and three young children.
Although Segura-Meza has been approved for a lung transplant, he fears he is running out of time. Two fellow stoneworkers died while on the waiting list. “Every day I hope the phone rings and tells me to come to the hospital and get my new lungs,” says Segura-Meza, who was hospitalized last month with a collapsed lung.
Call for change to stop killer stone
The study authors called on public health officials, clinicians and policymakers to take steps to better protect workers from exposure to silica dust, diagnose the disease more quickly and even ban the product.
“Our paper raises the alarm,” said Sheiphali Gandhi, a UCSF pulmonologist and co-author of the study. “If we don’t stop it now, we’ll get hundreds if not thousands of cases. Even if we stop it now, we’re going to see these cases in the next decade because they take years to develop.”
No country has yet banned the product, but Australia has considered it and is developing new regulations to help reduce the risk of silicosis through requirements such as better air monitoring, training and reporting. In California, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors is considering a possible ban, and the state’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health, known as Cal/OSHA, has begun drafting emergency regulations.
The study authors also called for early diagnosis and minimizing further exposure, both challenging due to the lack of access to health care and the need for workers to support their families. Of the patients in the study, 45% continued to work after their diagnosis.
More information:
JAMA Internal Medicine (2023). jamanetwork.com/journals/jamai … ainternmed.2023.3295
Quote: Deadly Dust: Worked Stone Makes California Workers Sick (2023, July 24) Retrieved July 24, 2023 from https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-07-deadly-stone-california-workers-sick.html
This document is copyrighted. Other than fair dealing for private study or research, nothing may be reproduced without written permission. The content is provided for informational purposes only.