OSHA program to emphasize silica exposure

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) agency is preparing to launch a new initiative focused on enhancing enforcement and providing compliance assistance to protect workers in the engineered stone fabrication and installation industries.

The program pertains predominantly to silica dust, which can be created when rock is quarried and crushed and when concrete is crushed for recycling.

“Many workers in the engineered stone industry are experiencing illnesses so severe that they’re unable to breathe—much less work a full shift—because of their exposure to silica dust,” OSHA staff member Doug Parker says. “Among them is a 27-year-old worker in California who went to an emergency room with shortness of breath in 2022 and whose lung biopsy later revealed he had silicosis. Since then, he has been on an oxygen tank and unable to support his wife and three young children financially.”

OSHA says its newly launched initiative will supplement its existing National Emphasis Program for Respirable Crystalline Silica.

The new initiative will focus enforcement efforts on industry employers to make sure they’re following required safety standards and providing workers with the protections required to keep them healthy. It establishes procedures for prioritizing federal OSHA inspections to identify and ensure prompt abatement of hazards in covered industries where workers face exposure to high levels of silica dust.

OSHA and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) say they have identified silica dust exposure as a health hazard for workers involved in manufacturing, finishing and installing natural and manufactured stone, which includes man-made, engineered artificial or cultured types.

Industries subject to prioritized programmed inspections include those engaged in cut stone and stone product manufacturing as well as brick, stone and related construction material merchant wholesalers.

Silicosis is an incurable, progressively disabling and sometimes fatal lung disease. Unsafe silica dust exposure can also lead to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or kidney disease.

According to OSHA, an American Medical Association (AMA) study released this July underscores the dangers for workers in these industries.

The “Silicosis Among Immigrant Engineered Stone Countertop Fabrication Workers in California” study cites 52 male patients diagnosed with silicosis caused by occupational exposure to respirable silica dust from engineered stone. Of these patients, 20 suffered progressive massive fibrosis, 11 needed lung transplants and 10 died due to their exposures.

As part of the initiative, OSHA is sending affected employers and stakeholders information on the initiative, including fact sheets on dust control methods and safer work practices for engineered stone manufacturing, finishing and installation operations.