Manufactured Stone Is Killing Stonecutters
The lethal workplace illness silicosis killed thousands each year up through the 1960s but became much rarer in recent decades thanks to union workplace safety fights. The disease is now making a comeback among stonecutters working with manufactured stone.
As many as two million workers may risk dangerous silica exposure, from manufactured stone as well as from mining, quarrying, sandblasting, and another new hazard, “frac sand” used in hydraulic fracturing in the oil and gas industry. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
Silicosis is a lethal workplace illness that killed thousands each year up through the 1960s. In recent decades, thanks to union workplace safety fights, it became much rarer. Annual deaths dropped to the hundreds. The disease affected mostly older workers with longer exposures.
So it was hard for stonecutter Gustavo Reyes Gonzalez, thirty-five, to get a clear diagnosis in 2019 when he first developed a cough and shortness of breath. It wasn’t until two years later that he was told he had silicosis — and only had a year to live.
Reyes Gonzalez had worked for fifteen years in a fabrication shop cutting and shaping the manufactured stone now commonly used for countertops and showers (also known as quartz or engineered stone).
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