Your quartz countertop is the new asbestos — for the workers who cut it

If you walk into a Costco, Home Depot or Lowe’s and order a countertop for your kitchen renovation, the store will likely contract with a local fabrication shop, instructing them to make one from a material called engineered stone. Often marketed as “quartz,” engineered stone is a synthetic product that contains up to 95% finely ground quartz mixed with polyester resins and pigments. The ease with which consumers can order it obscures the fact that workers who cut, grind and polish these kitchen countertops risk developing a terrible disease that destroys their lungs. In California alone, more than 550 workers have been diagnosed with silicosis caused by this engineered stone – a deadly disease that is totally preventable and for which there is no cure. At least 100 of these California workers have undergone or are awaiting a lung transplant, a complicated procedure that extends life but does not provide a long-term cure. At least 30 have died between 2019 and 2026. We are an epidemiologist and a physician, both specializing in work-related diseases, who have studied the dangers of working with this material. We believe that the surge in silicosis cases is a public health emergency. But the trend is almost invisible outside of California because most states don’t yet track the incidence of the disease. A fashionable but dangerous material Engineered stone, introduced just a few decades ago, has become the most popular choice for kitchen countertops. It is more durable but often less expensive than marble. When workers cut, grind and polish these engineered stone countertops for a home, billions of very small crystalline silica particles coated with resins and pigments are released. The workers inhale these particles, and many develop a severe and rapidly progressive form of silicosis. Like asbestos, silica causes both respiratory disease and lung cancer. The fabrication workers affected are young – the median age of the California workers is 46 and the median age at