No one should die for fancy countertops

I renovated my kitchen two years ago, and now I can’t help but wonder: Is someone sick or dying because of my design choices?

Among the decisions I had to make was which material would replace the cracked and stained yellow tile countertop that was installed in the 1950s. I admired the look of wood, but ultimately chose a sparkly quartz.

In recent years, quartz, or engineered stone, has become the most popular material for slick-looking countertops, and the multibillion-dollar indus- try is only expected to grow. Quartz isn’t cheap, but its attractive appearance and durability make it worth the extra cost. It’s nearly impossible to burn or stain, which is a problem with wood no matter how well you maintain it.

Those are things I discussed with the experts at the tile and countertop suppliers. At no time did we talk about the hidden costs of the option, specifically that the people — mainly young Latinos — who cut engineered stone countertops are getting sick and dying from silicosis, a disease I had never even heard of.

Or that workplace health officials have known for years about the dangers associated with this line of work and rampant noncompliance with safety measures at work sites, but that it is largely unknown to consumers and even workers themselves. Or that dozens of people in the San Fernando Valley, where the engineered stone industry is concentrated, are currently sick with this incurable respiratory disease, which is caused by breathing in the silica dust released when quartz is cut and has had a local fatality rate as high as 20%. Or that at least 10 workers have died from silicosis between 2019 and 2022, and many others are severely disabled.

I only learned these things recently, like many other Times readers, from the story by Emily Alpert Reyes and Cindy Carcamo that put a spotlight on this condition and the industry — and sparked a discussion about what can be done to keep workers safe.

This epidemic of silicosis, as health experts have put it, has been on the radar of state and county health officials for some months after concerns were raised by physicians at Olive VIEW-UCLA Medical Center who were seeing an uptick in cases. The state is working on emergency regulations for those who cut engineered stone, even though regulators acknowledge that it may not be possible to make this job completely safe for workers.

CAL/OSHA officials wrote in a May report that “engineered stone may be so hazardous that even properly designed engineering controls and work practices may be unable to prevent RCS [respirable crystalline silica] exposures and silicosis among the workers who cut, shape and polish it.” Furthermore, many of the workers who are suffering from silicosis reported that they wore respirators and their workplaces incorporated safety methods, such as using water to keep dust down.

If there is no way to keep quartz cutters safe, should engineered stone fabrication be banned? Perhaps. That is one of the options that Los Angeles County health officials will explore in a report requested by Supervisors Lindsey Horvath and Holly Mitchell. Rivas said it is an option that she is looking at as well.

It’s good that lawmakers and regulators have taken notice of this terrible situation, but it does still feel like there’s an important element missing — consumer education. If I had known that choosing quartz put workers’ lives at risk, I would have picked another countertop that doesn’t come with a side of guilt.

There is really no excuse to allow dangerous working conditions for a product that is used for purely aesthetic reasons when there are safer — and equally attractive — options.