A stone countertop fabricator's hands are covered in dust at a shop on Oct. 31, 2023 in Sun Valley, California. Inhaling fine particles can contribute to silicosis, a deadly lung disease. Critics question the effectiveness of a new bill that aims to combat the silicosis crisis that has affected mostly Latino countertop fabrication workers in California. (Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
A California bill aimed at preventing more stonecutters from contracting a deadly lung disease on the job cleared its first legislative hurdle on Wednesday.
The proposed law, SB 20, seeks to expand regulations to protect workers from inhaling toxic silica particles while power-cutting and polishing slabs of artificial stone for kitchen and bathroom countertops and other products.
Artificial stone countertops have exploded in popularity because they are cheaper and easier to clean than natural stone. However, cutting the factory-made slabs without proper protective equipment is linked to a more aggressive form of silicosis, a disease historically associated with miners and stonecutters.
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Artificial stone is now the top countertop material in the U.S., with a market size of $17.7 billion, according to a report by state workplace safety regulators. Critics argue that SB 20 won’t be enough to stem a growing public health crisis.
In California, health authorities have tracked about 260 silicosis cases among mostly Latino countertop fabrication workers since 2019, with Los Angeles County’s San Fernando Valley as the epicenter of the outbreak. At least 15 people have died. Dozens underwent lung transplants.
State Sen. Caroline Menjivar (D-San Fernando Valley) introduced SB 20.
A stone fabricator places his hand on a table that he cut at his home in San Francisco on Oct. 17, 2023. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)
“We need to do better to protect these individuals,” Menjivar told the Senate’s Labor, Public Employment and Retirement Committee at Wednesday’s hearing. “I’ve met someone who was in his early 30s who had a double lung transplant. This is no inexpensive disease. This is life threatening.”
Artificial stone, also known as quartz or engineered stone, is uniquely hazardous to stonecutters because it can contain up to 93% silica — significantly more than natural alternatives.
California workplace regulators approved emergency rules in December 2023 banning the dry cutting of engineered stone. Fabrication shops must use wet-cutting saws and other tools that submerge slabs under water to suppress dust. Those Cal/OSHA rules became permanent a year later.
SB 20 would go further by establishing certification and training requirements for fabrication shops to operate safely while also prohibiting the supply of artificial stone to unlicensed businesses or people after January 2027. The bill, which the labor committee advanced with a unanimous vote, would also require the state to create a public online database that tracks enforcement actions against fabrication businesses. SB 20 heads next to a hearing at the Senate Health Committee.
Judy Yee, a legislative advocate with the State Building and Construction Trades Council of California, said many fabrication shops in Los Angeles County are unregulated, often operating out of garages or the backs of trailers. The businesses employ mostly non-unionized undocumented immigrants, who may fear speaking up about unsafe workplace practices.
Without proper training, tracking and prevention efforts, the state will continue to see a rise in silicosis cases and deaths, according to Yee and other supporters of Menjivar’s bill at the hearing. Representatives for industry groups and Cosentino, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of engineered stone, also attended.
“We believe SB 20 represents a critical step toward complementing California’s recently adopted silica regulations with a well-structured certification program for artificial stone fabricators,” Eric Rose, a spokesperson with the Stone Coalition, which represents manufacturers, distributors and fabricators, said in a statement. “A certification framework — paired with robust oversight and enforcement — will help ensure that all fabricators, particularly bad actors, are held to consistent health and safety standards.”
Hundreds of silicosis patients in California are suing the largest engineered stone manufacturers — Cosentino, Caesarstone and Cambria — arguing that the companies failed to adequately label and warn of the hazards of their products, according to James Nevin, one of the attorneys representing workers.
A stone fabrication worker shares a photo on his phone of stonecutting work from his job at his home in San Francisco on Oct. 17, 2023. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)
Nevin and other critics of SB 20 doubt a licensing process will protect most stonecutters. According to Nevin, many fabrication shops will continue operating without certification because they can’t afford the expensive equipment needed to comply with Cal/OSHA rules to handle the material safely.
San Francisco resident Jorge Estrella Moreno, one of the workers suing the manufacturers, was diagnosed with silicosis about two years ago. His symptoms — feeling like he can’t get enough air when talking or walking uphill — have worsened, he said.
The long-time stonecutter, who prides himself in having raised three kids in the U.S. with the job, continues to work at a fabrication shop that cuts artificial stone slabs dry, exposing him and others to dust clouds, he said.
“I don’t have another option. I have to pay bills and rent, and if I don’t work, I don’t have enough to eat,” Estrella Moreno, 49, told KQED in Spanish.
Maegan Ortiz, who directs a labor center that educates countertop fabrication workers in the San Fernando Valley on work hazards, worried that SB 20 would further drive small fabrication shops underground.
“The only way to deal with the silicosis crisis is to actually stop the usage of this artificial stone with the high silica content,” said Ortiz, executive director at Instituto de Educación Popular del Sur de California. “Basically, all that this bill does is ensure that big companies and big shops have the above-ground market of artificial stone … As far as we are concerned, SB 20 is a gift to the industry and not a gift to workers.”
Australia became the first country to ban the use, supply and manufacture of engineered stone last year due to a rising silicosis epidemic. Top engineered stone manufacturers hope to avoid that fate in California, where Cal/OSHA officials have suggested a ban may be needed if widespread noncompliance with safety rules continues.
Manufacturers maintain that the material is used safely to produce countertops when appropriate measures are followed and that a ban would unnecessarily decimate jobs. Representatives for Cosentino, a company based in Spain, and the Israel-based Caesarstone, told Cal/OSHA in 2023 that they would support creating a licensing program to sell artificial stone only to fabrication shops equipped to handle it safely.
SB 20 is nearly identical to a bill Menjivar co-authored last year. That bill’s main author, former Assemblymember Luz Rivas, who was elected to Congress in November, pulled AB 3043, arguing that state regulators were “not receptive to creating a tracking system to identify licensed fabrication shops.”
Estrella Moreno said he would prefer to use safer stone alternatives at work and believes the most effective way to protect workers like himself would be for state regulators to prohibit the use and sale of artificial stone altogether.
“A ban would be the best thing for everyone,” he said.
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