Fancy quartz countertops are killing people who make them, doctors say

My childhood pride in being able to spell "pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis" induced a lifelong fear of silica dust and other industrial particulate hazards.

At that time silicosis was mostly a mining hazard. It is sad to see people suffering it in urban commercial facilities that could easily be fitted with actually clean positive pressure respiration systems.

usually the damage is done out in the field when they bring it to the consumer and it does not fit, so the dry angle grinder is pulled out lack of protective equipment is available. Most consumers are not around to push them to take it back or the employee balks at carrying the 200kg stone top back down the stairs etc and gets the job done.

You can also give similar issues if you don't wear a mask or not clean up after sanding walls, current cement, cutting gyprock etc etc.

in news today : water is wet.

they mentioned a victim who had endured lung injury but also said that they routinely use protective equipment -- this might be an actual interesting investigation if it was something more than "someone lied"; yet didn't touch on the topic.

the idea of consumer goods bans for goods that are dangerous to produce without adequate protective gear is ridiculous -- that list is huge, we would likely stop producing most anything.

It certains needs a regulatory deeper look whether the disease could occur inspite of wearing the mandated protective gear. But, I cannot help but wonder why humans are grindinding this kind of stuff in the first place? Do we not have industrial scale CNC machines that do this job for us? thrn all you need is to shield the machine and let only the finished product to roll out..

There might be a widespread lack of PPE use by tradespeople.

Example: I was in Texas and watched this guy carve headstones without a respirator or hearing protection while covered head-to-toe in stone and cement dust. He was only wearing some dust goggles. He wasn't wearing gloves or steel toed boots either. I thought he was crazy and not long for this world.

I’m curious whether quartzite carries the same risk? They only mention marble and granite as having a lower health risk