California regulators superior a proposal to ban synthetic stone counter tops linked to silicosis from poisonous silica mud, starting rulemaking to ban engineered stone with greater than 1% crystalline silica tied to a whole lot of California circumstances.
Jose Andrade Peña, a stonecutter for 33 years recognized with superior synthetic stone silicosis, left, delivers an affidavit about his sickness throughout a presentation on silica at an Occupational Security and Well being Requirements Board (OSHSB) assembly in Santa Rosa on April 16, 2026. (Gina Castro for KQED)
For months, main producers of synthetic stone, against the transfer, argued that their factory-made product is just not the issue, however countertop fabrication retailers that fail to comply with correct security measures, reminiscent of overlaying stone slabs with water whereas chopping to suppress mud.
Representatives for Minnesota-based Cambria, Cosentino, headquartered in Spain, and different corporations within the multi-billion greenback business sought to solid doubt on the necessity for a prohibition, proposing a fabricator certification program and extra enforcement as a substitute.
“Banning a product to compensate for failed enforcement is irresponsible,” mentioned Matt Thurston, regional director of Cosentino North America, in the course of the marathon-length public testimony that preceded the vote in Los Angeles. “Permitting unlawful fabricators to maintain exposing employees to silica mud from different supplies like pure stone is just not employee safety. Quantity two, many retailers already use these merchandise safely and legally.”
Statewide, greater than 560 stoneworkers have contracted a extra aggressive type of silicosis after inhaling poisonous crystalline silica mud generated by synthetic stone when it’s minimize or polished. A minimum of 31 individuals have died from the illness since 2019, and almost 60 have undergone lung transplants.
About 75% of those circumstances have been confirmed over the past three years. Practically the entire sufferers are Latino males, lots of them low-income immigrants who mentioned they didn’t know in regards to the hazards of working with synthetic stone, also referred to as quartz or engineered stone, till they or their co-workers obtained sick.
The speedy rise of silicosis within the business — with about 1,000 new circumstances anticipated within the state over the following two years — coincides with skyrocketing shopper demand for engineered stone counter tops within the final twenty years, in response to officers on the California Division of Public Well being and Cal/OSHA. The state is the one one within the U.S. actively monitoring the illness, although greater than 100 circumstances linked to synthetic stone have been recognized in Colorado, Texas, Illinois, Florida and different states.
“I’ve had loads of struggling. Final time, I vomited loads of blood, and my nightmare didn’t finish there,” Demetrio Luna, a California silicosis survivor who lately underwent a lung transplant, mentioned in Spanish as board members neared a vote. “You possibly can cease this as a result of it’s not simply the affected person who suffers, however the whole household. And regardless of what they are saying about sporting masks and chopping with water, the particles are so tiny that they enter the lungs.”
Silicosis lung transplants amongst miners and all different occupations have been comparatively uncommon up to now three a long time, with solely 93 complete nationwide between 1990 and 2022, mentioned Dr. Betsey Noth, a senior industrial hygienist with Cal/OSHA. Since then, synthetic stone employees in California have undergone 58 lung transplants, with further sufferers discovered ineligible for the medical process as a result of they have been too sick.
Profitable lung transplants, which price $1 million or extra every, lengthen sufferers’ lives by solely a handful of years on common. Dr. Jane Fazio, a UCLA pulmonologist, advised OSHSB board members that lung transplantation for the surge in engineered stone silicosis circumstances is a “very costly band-aid.”
“It’s a horrible use of assets, and it’s infinite human struggling,” mentioned Fazio, who has cared for many silicosis sufferers within the San Fernando Valley, within the U.S. silicosis epicenter. “Can we need to delay an issue, or do we wish a swift answer to an issue that’s solely getting worse except we take away a harmful product that’s actually on the coronary heart of the issue?”
A medical affiliation petitioned the state in December to start out expedited rulemaking to ban the usage of engineered stone with greater than 1% crystalline silica to make and set up counter tops. As a part of the petition’s overview, an in depth Cal/OSHA analysis and the board’s personal employees decided that eradicating the product upstream within the distribution chain can be the quickest and most cost-effective strategy to stem the silicosis epidemic.
However the OSHSB proposed resolution language launched to the general public final week appeared to require two committees to check the matter additional, a path championed by chair Joseph Alioto Jr., a trial legal professional who has advocated for the legal prosecution of countertop fabrication store employers discovered violating present silica guidelines. The transfer raised alarm bells amongst employee advocates who frightened that the extra steps would create pointless delays — and derail a ban — within the face of an pressing occupational hazard.
Including to the issues, solely three board members have been current for the high-stakes vote, as a substitute of seven. Gov. Gavin Newsom, answerable for appointments to the physique that approves office security guidelines, has left two seats vacant for months.
In the end, the energetic board members — Alioto, Urwin and industrial hygienist Nola Kennedy — determined to grant the physicians’ petition and kickstart a fast-track course of for Cal/OSHA to develop a regulation prohibiting the usage of synthetic stone with crystalline silica, which might take a number of months and nonetheless require one other vote earlier than approval. In a parallel monitor, the company was tasked with convening two further advisory committees.
José Andrade Peña, an Oakland resident who was recognized with superior silicosis in 2024 and who testified in particular person earlier than the board final month whereas carrying the oxygen machine he must breathe, applauded the choice.
“What nice information,” Andrade Peña, 53, mentioned in a textual content message. “It comes as an enormous reduction to me and to lots of my colleagues which might be nonetheless working with this extremely harmful materials. God is nice.”
The decadeslong countertop fabrication employee, who was happy with lifting 60-pound stone slabs and being his household’s important breadwinner, mentioned he can not work and is usually confined to his house. Coughing matches and exhaustion rule days stuffed with fear for his 5 youngsters.
“It’s painful and irritating to know that the federal government nonetheless permits these poisonous merchandise to proceed being offered,” Andrade Peña mentioned. “Synthetic stone ought to have been faraway from the market a protracted, very long time in the past.”
