this post was submitted on 25 Sep 2023
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618
California workers who cut countertops are dying of an incurable disease (www.latimes.com)
submitted 1 year ago by geosoco@kbin.social to c/news@lemmy.world
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“Nobody uses water,” one man in a Dodgers cap said in Spanish when Maria Cabrera approached, holding flyers about silicosis, an incurable and suffocating disease that has devastated dozens of workers across the state and killed men who have barely reached middle age.

...

The disease dates back centuries, but researchers say the booming popularity of countertops made of engineered stone, which has much higher concentrations of silica than many kinds of natural stone, has driven a new epidemic of an accelerated form of the suffocating illness. As the dangerous dust builds up and scars the lungs, the disease can leave workers short of breath, weakened and ultimately suffering from lung failure.

“You can get a transplant,” Cabrera told the man in Spanish, “but it won’t last.”

In California, it has begun to debilitate young workers, largely Latino immigrants who cut and polish slabs of engineered stone. Instead of cropping up in people in their 60s or 70s after decades of exposure, it is now afflicting men in their 20s, 30s or 40s, said Dr. Jane Fazio, a pulmonary critical care physician who became alarmed by cases she saw at Olive View-UCLA Medical Center. Some California patients have died in their 30s.

...

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[–] assassin_aragorn@lemmy.world 21 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Oh dear God I remember being warned about this in a chem lab because we were using some silica.

Dust/particulates are always bad for the lungs. I don't think there's any exception. Masks with a fitness test need to be provided and specified as PPE for this kind of work, at the very least. The company is unlikely to do so themselves unless legally pressured to.

Edit from my double comment: employers are required to provide functioning, proper PPE to employees per OSHA, and also train them on properly using it. If masks and water hoses aren't already considered required, we need to make sure that gets updated. Force the companies to comply or be sued.

I very recently watched a safety module thing about this for work actually as part of the training requirement.