TRENDY fake stone worktops should be banned to prevent more deaths among young people, unions have demanded.
The engineered surfaces have already been linked to more than a dozen UK cases of a lethal lung disease called artificial stone silicosis.
Victims develop severe scarring and injuries in the lungs from inhaling dust while working with material containing lots of silica.
So far, at least 18 UK cases of this new aggressive form of engineered stone silicosis have been identified, the youngest in a man aged just 24.
Two men under 50, both stone engineers, have already died from the condition in the UK.
The high-silica artificial stone, also known as quartz, has been banned in Australia after being labelled ‘modern-day asbestos‘ due to hundreds of suspected cases.
Despite the health risks, demand for engineered stone in the UK continues to grow, particularly for kitchen and bathroom renovations, as it mimics marble or granite at a lower cost.
In fresh calls for a UK ban, the Trade Union Congress (TUC), representing around 5.5 million workers, told The i halting quartz manufacturing in Britain would “prevent hundreds of deaths.”
Shelly Asquith, health and safety policy officer at the federation of Trade Unions, said current exposure limits for silica dust have been set “far too high”.
She said: “Research shows if we were to halve the amount of dust workers were legally allowed to be exposed to, it would prevent hundreds of deaths.
“Britain must go further still in prioritising the health of workers and ban the use of high silica engineered stone which, as the tragic and preventable deaths show, can be lethal.”
Last month, 48-year-old father-of-three and stonemason Marek Marzec died after months of end-of-life care for silicosis.
He described the dust he inhaled while cutting quartz kitchen worktops as leaving him “unable to breathe” and in “terrible pain.”
Earlier this year, Malik Al-Khalil, 28, contracted silicosis after five years of cutting quartz worktops in London.
He told the i that doctors had warned him he could die after falling seriously ill with the lung disease.
Engineered from one of the hardest minerals on earth, quartz worktops typically consist of about 90 per cent ground quartz and 10 per cent resins and pigments.
When prepared for installation, they are often ‘dry’ cut and polished using an angle grinder or other hand tools without water to suppress dust, increasing the amount of fine dust produced.
Leigh Day, the law firm representing the first UK patients diagnosed with silicosis after working with the stone, is calling for better safety measures, like good PPE, to be enforced and put in place in workshops to ward off the disease.
They’re also calling for silicosis triggered by cutting stones to be recognised as a prescribed disease so that patients can be fast-tracked and treated effectively.
Andrew Cooper, a solicitor at Leigh Day, previously told The Sun that without new measures in place “it’s very likely that we’re going to see a significant increase in cases going forward.”
Dr Johanna Feary, consultant in occupational lung disease at Royal Brompton Hospital, echoed Andrew’s fears.
“We saw our first confirmed case of silicosis due to artificial stone in the UK in 2023,” she said.
“This year we have seen a steady increase in the number of cases which is of great concern.
“You can have the disease without having any symptoms and we expect that there will be many more cases coming forward in the future.”
Just 16 months ago, Leigh Day hadn’t ever seen a single case of engineered stone-related silicosis in the UK.
Since then, the number of lawsuits they’ve taken on related to the illness has reached almost ten.
“What’s really concerning is that most of these men are only in their 20s and 30s, and they’re being left with serious disabilities so early in life,” Andrew explained.
He believed young workers could be more vulnerable because they often do most of the heavy manual labour in workshops, which includes cutting and handling artificial stones.
A study, published in August suggested the average age of patients with the disease was just 34, with the first eight cases being in men between 27 and 56.
Silicosis is a long-term lung disease caused by inhaling large amounts of crystalline silica dust, usually over many years.
Once inside the lungs, silica causes swelling (inflammation) and gradually leads to areas of hardened and scarred lung tissue (fibrosis).
Lung tissue that’s scarred in this way doesn’t function properly.
People who work in the following industries are particularly at risk:
The symptoms of silicosis usually take many years to develop, and you may not notice any problems until after you’ve stopped working with silica dust.
The symptoms can also continue to get worse, even if you’re no longer exposed.
Main symptoms
The main symptoms of silicosis are:
Source: NHS
At the time, one of the patients had died, three had immune system damage and two needed. lung transplants,
Lung transplants are often the only treatment for silicosis.
Unfortunately, some patients – like Marek – are too unwell by the time they receive treatment to undergo the major operation.
Doctors said the disease appears to keep getting worse even after men stopped breathing the dust.
This makes it similar to the incurable diseases asbestosis and mesothelioma that have developed in thousands of labourers who worked with asbestos in the 1900s.
