2y ago

California workers who cut countertops are dying of an incurable disease

www.latimes.com

“Nobody uses water,” one man in a Dodgers cap said in Spanish when Maria Cabrera approached, holding flyers about silicosis, an incurable and suffocating disease that has devastated dozens of workers across the state and killed men who have barely reached middle age.

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The disease dates back centuries, but researchers say the booming popularity of countertops made of engineered stone, which has much higher concentrations of silica than many kinds of natural stone, has driven a new epidemic of an accelerated form of the suffocating illness. As the dangerous dust builds up and scars the lungs, the disease can leave workers short of breath, weakened and ultimately suffering from lung failure.

“You can get a transplant,” Cabrera told the man in Spanish, “but it won’t last.”

In California, it has begun to debilitate young workers, largely Latino immigrants who cut and polish slabs of engineered stone. Instead of cropping up in people in their 60s or 70s after decades of exposure, it is now afflicting men in their 20s, 30s or 40s, said Dr. Jane Fazio, a pulmonary critical care physician who became alarmed by cases she saw at Olive View-UCLA Medical Center. Some California patients have died in their 30s.

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81 comments

There are a lot of workers in different industries that are at risk of silicosis and don't know it. The mentality of "it's just dust, don't be afraid to get a little dirty" will end up killing people.
- You're absolutely right, all this old timer "Kids these days are so soft..." B. S. When in reality the young just don't wanna die or be maimed at 30.
  Take care of your bodies, kids, it's the only one you get. Don't let corporations run you into the ground and then throw you in the trash. We need to demand better working conditions from our bosses and our elected officials.
  
  "The only one looking out for #1 is you." - My section chief when I was in the Army.
  I'll never forget it and I pass it on every chance I get. I've gone as far as shaming some people into wearing knee braces and the like because "what the fuck are you doing, you're gonna fuck it up even worse"
  I try anyways... doesn't always work...
  
  I try to point out to my coworkers that part of what they're trading for wages is wear and tear on their bodies. Using provided PPE is like getting a raise because you're giving the company less.
  
  My doctor told me recently I should wear a mask everytime I mow the lawn. I was like fuckkkk. It's true though.
- My boss has emphysema and asthma, but refuses to wear a mask when doing demolition because "it makes it too hard to breath." I don't understand this mentality.
  
  I don't know an outdoor construction worker that doesn't have some sort of pulmonary disease. Chronic rhinitis at best, mostly COPD, many with also with sleep apnea. And those that smoke on dusty job sites will all die young.
The answer here is simple- regulations with teeth.
Every saw uses water. Every worker wears a mask. Random inspections.
Inspector sees one person without a mask? $1000 fine. One machine with no water hooked up? $5000 fine. 10 people with no masks and 3 machines with no water hooked up? $25,000 fine. Make it clear that there is no fucking around here.
Job site like described in the article? Shut down until problems fixed.
- I'd further add personally liability of all supervisors, managers and executives. You run such an operation and cannot prove without a doubt that you instructed for safety, provided the necessary tools and materials and did regulary inspections yourself? You pay for everyones treatment and damages.
  
  Personal liability (piercing the corporate shield) is a really tough nut to crack. That'd also do some outsized harm- think kids college fund raided for settlement money.
  That said, I'd be happy to make it a personal crime to, with knowledge of the law, instruct any worker to use a machine without safety equipment and water hookup, or to work without a mask. THAT should be a personal crime, like criminal charges. And you should have to, when hired for any such supervisory position, sign a one-piece thing that has that law laid out so you can't claim you didn't know the law.
  
  As a manager of blue collar workers that actually gives a shit about my teams this is the answer unfortunately. Many managers don’t care but will if they’re personally liable.
  
  Set up a monitored tip line where supervisors can tell the govt that management isn't giving them the proper PPE to protect their workers. That way if management isn't giving them PPE, supervisors have a place to go turn to instead of being squeezed from both ends. Get an OSHA inspector out on a surprise trip and get upper management fined.
  Supervisors need to care about their direct reports first and foremost, over any company demands. One of the best supervisors I've ever had gave me therapist recommendations when I mentioned having a tough time with mental health, and she told me she sometimes took personal days for her own mental health. Another supervisor, when I was going through an even more rough period of mental health, told me that his wife had bipolar and they put a lot of time and effort in, together, for her to feel alright.
  I felt like I had those guys in my corner, and I knew that if push came to shove, they'd have my back. They may have ultimately been powerless to internal HR policies, but they reaffirmed to me that my health should be my top priority and I needed to put it first.
  That's what it means to have a workplace as a family. The leader truly cares about everyone on the team and has their back.
- I think each violation should carry a heftier fine than the last, so each worker without a mask would be a 25% nominal increase.
  1 without? $1000 2 without? $1000 + $1250 3 without? $1000 + $1250 + $1562.50 10 without? You're looking at a $42,566.13 fine
  You have to have escalations, otherwise violating the regulations becomes a business expense, not a punishment.
  
  Well, in this case I'd say split the difference and make it each incident escalates where an incident #1 = "we caught you, we told you", incident #2 = "we told you yesterday to fix your shit / don't do it again, 2x fine" rinse repeat. Otherwise you run the risk of bankrupting a small business that had all 10 of their workers in violation, and maybe even not making a dent in a large business that only had 1 out of 1000 workers caught in violation
  In addition to per-incident escalation, what I could get on board with are scaled fines based on contract / business size. The first incident is still "survivable" for small businesses but will actually have teeth for those larger ones. And then of course if they keep violating, say bye-bye economic viability.
  
  I agree very much. I think on the low end fines should go down to be survivable for a small business, and we don't need to fine a big company $100k because someone took their mask off.
  But fines should increase steeply by number of offenses, and multiply if management is willfully refusing to provide a safe working environment (IE doesn't want to pay to have a machine hooked up to water/drain, doesn't want to pay to have filters cleaned, doesn't want to pay for masks / goggles / other PPE, etc).
- gonna need higher fines than that. Its not some rinky dinky small outfits that are handling fancy counter tops like that.
  
  Yeah, it needs to be a percentage of revenue.
The fucked up part of this is how preventable it is. Very few folks will take to wearing a mask though, when that's all they need.
- Here's the full set of measures recommended:
  Workplace safety regulators have recommended a suite of measures including water spraying systems, ventilation and vacuum systems to clear dust, in addition to protective respirators for workers — ones covering the entire face if silica levels in the air are high.
- Considering these are likely illegal immigrants working on these countertops, I wouldn't be shocked if their employers refused to supply masks.
  
  or charged them for the basic safety gear out of their already low wage.
- False, read the article?
  Its more than just masks that are needed and the article makes that very clear.
  
  Right, it's the ventilation hose built into every piece of cutting equipment ever made that they neglected to use.
I have had countertops put in two different times. The first time the crew had a water saw and masks. The second time I was horrified to see the guys cutting the stuff raw without even a paper mask on.
I worked for a few spray-foam insulation companies in my early 20's. I'm just waiting to hear the same thing from spray foam. Half the guys I worked with didn't wear masks most of the time and were just covered in foam all day breathing in the off gassing of fire retardents and blowing agents and other nasty chemicals. I quit because I saw the writing on the wall and my boss hated me for quitting before training my replacement. I told him it wasn't worth my health.
- The dumbest thing is the mentality between workers sometimes. "Don't be a pussy" some will say when you ask for masks/goggles/ear plugs/etc but none of them will be there when you eventually get injured or sick. None of them will congratulate you, hand you a tough-guy-trophy and pay your medical bills + pension.
- Good call. Hed probably be the type to make fun of you for wearing a mask too, huh?
  
  Nah he was my boss and I was a decent sprayer, and a very very good helper. So to make fun of me wouldn't have worked well for him. He understood my concerns. My other coworkers were not like that though, like someone in a comment above me said. They'd all crack jokes at me because I took safety very seriously. I would like to see how they are all doing now and I wonder about their health sometimes. I didn't keep in touch with any of them though and live far away now.
- The EPA/OSHA cut hexavalent chromium exposure limits by 100. Aircraft workers have been spraying, painting and airbrushing that shit for fucking ever. It's uniquely good at its task (anti-corrosion) so there's no making it go away any time soon.
- Polyurethane?
  
  Yes spray polyurethane foam. SPF.
I did construction very briefly ("briefly" because the company owner quit paying me after a while); companies cut corners every possible place they can, because any safety measures cost time or productivity. Even doing things properly costs time and money that they don't want to spend. Construction is competitive, so they're bidding as low as possible, and promising unrealistic delivery times, and then turning around and expecting their workers to make those deadlines and costs.
You can't fix this without stringent oversight, and criminal prosecution for the owners that are refusing to give workers the correct tools, and follow safety protocols.
I absolutely love the enthusiasm for required regulations in this thread but everyone is missing one critical aspect... illegal workers are probably a huge part of those impacted by this. Many of these "companies" who cut counters work through subcontractors and I bet the majority of these are just a guy with an LLC. I would love to see more numbers on the type of worker/businesses being hit with this illness.
Oh dear God I remember being warned about this in a chem lab because we were using some silica.
Dust/particulates are always bad for the lungs. I don't think there's any exception. Masks with a fitness test need to be provided and specified as PPE for this kind of work, at the very least. The company is unlikely to do so themselves unless legally pressured to.
Edit from my double comment: employers are required to provide functioning, proper PPE to employees per OSHA, and also train them on properly using it. If masks and water hoses aren't already considered required, we need to make sure that gets updated. Force the companies to comply or be sued.
I very recently watched a safety module thing about this for work actually as part of the training requirement.
We hear about machines replacing jobs all the time. Why can't they replace cutting fucking countertops so people don't die in their fucking 20s?
- This isn't happening in factories. This is happening in situations where someone is remodeling so none of those guys can afford fancy machinery. They usually cut/fit/sand on site.
So much victim blaming in this thread.
- Depends on what you're used to. Some people fight using PPE when they really shouldn't be fighting it. It's a difficult nut to crack since too much force from corporate over stupid safety shit fatigues workers to that kind of shit. Finding the right balance isn't easy.
- If you improperly use a knife and cut your finger off, is it the knife's fault? Improperly using a tool or process can and will cause problems.
  
  And yet if you cut your finger off at work the employer is still liable for workers' compensation.
  If they aren't using a mask at home when they are making countertops as a hobby, fine, that's on them. But they are at work.
  An employee-employer relationship is born of a contract, a bargained-for exchange of labor for money, and with it an employer has a right to control. If the employer fails to exercise that right in order to protect its workers, such as by failing to compel PPE, the employer is more culpable than the employee. The employer could have taken the step of firing an employee who won't comply with PPE in order to protect the worker, such an employer is therefore doubly culpable, in my view. It's that element of compulsory control over the means and manner of work, including the employer's right to terminate an employee who won't use PPE, which excuses the employee from responsibility for resulting injuries.
- The knowledge is out there and common, the machines come built in with hoses to damper the material. Run the hose. Wear a damn mask. It's not hard.
  I'm not going to feel especially sorry for folks who choose to not use safety equipment.
  
  You know for a fact each and every machine is hooked up to water at all times? And every one of them runs perfectly or use of the machine is discontinued until it does? Every time without fail?
  
  The hoses and proper masks need to be mandated as official PPE so that companies are required by law provide them.
  
  Exactly. It is funny that the same people here who make fun of people who died of COVID because they willfully didn't wear a mask, wash their hands, and get the vaccine. Well this ain't that different. The process is there. The tools exist. Do the job right. You aren't smarter than the engineers and scientists who developed these processes and wrote the safety instructions. Your stubbornness is not an excuse.
I've been to a place that does this. Everything was covered in water. It prevents any dust getting in the air. The slab and blades have water spraying over it. I don't think a mask was even necessary. But without water I assume it would be awful.
to debilitate young workers, largely Latino immigrants
in an industry where immigrant workers typically labor in small shops and are often paid in cash
made their rounds at the parking lot of the Home Depot in San Fernando, where laborers in long-sleeve shirts waited for people to drive up and offer them work.
In the effort to be politically correct and not say "illegal immigrants", they prevent the reader from knowing the true extent of the problem.
When an employer is willing to break employment laws related to immigration, they may also be more likely to break other laws, like workplace safety laws. When the employees are illegal immigrants, they're not as able to complain to authorities when their employers are breaking safety laws.
If these workers were actual legal immigrants, they could blow the whistle on their employers. If they were unionized their union could shut down the business until their bosses took their safety seriously. But, because they're illegal immigrants an unethical employer can treat them as disposable -- and, pretty much by definition, anybody who is hiring illegal immigrants is an unethical employer.
The people affected here are largely stone workers. Stone workers used to be extremely powerful. The Freemason fraternal organization started as stone workers who held the secrets of the profession, supervised stoneworker qualifications, controlled their interactions with clients, regulated their interactions with the state, etc. Now, because of the widespread acceptance of illegal immigration, not only are stoneworkers not powerful, they're disposable.
- You make a good point about how workers have been played against each other to the disadvantage of all. However, there is a lot of area between illegal immigrants and full citizens who are comfortable bringing their employers to court. Many legal immigrants spend years in situations where being fired or quitting would mean having to leave the country. Depending on what they'd be going back to or what family and life they have built here in the meantime, they may be less free to rock the boat even if they felt confident in the legal system. Even citizens would be unlikely to take a stand without the support of some larger group.
Ironically the virus scare made N95s unobtanium or very expensive for several years there. Gonna guess that didn't help with safety compliance amongst the mostly low-income people doing this kind of work.
- That is sad to hear. I live in an area where almost no one wore masks. Even at the hight of the pandemic. Our local pharmacies got a bunch of N95s for free to give away free. There was supposed to be a limit but since no one was using them they would give me a lot of extra. I'm guessing they still have boxes stacked up somewhere.
  Its also sad that this could have probably been prevented by using a wet saw with water hooked up. Anyone who has cut stone once without a wet saw walks away knowing they shouldn't have been breathing that.
  
  What always slays me is you seldom see pro contractors wearing eye protection or gloves either. Depending on the job I wouldn't recommend going without.
Sand belongs on the ground and in our chips, not in our lungs.
- And a little bit in our burritos.
- I want nothing but potatoes in my chips!
  
  Salt and vinegar my guy.
Most of the guys I know in any form of manual labor jobs are the kind of guys that would rather die than wear a mask to protect themselves or others from anything, so this not even slightly surprising to see.
Wear a mask and run the damn safety equipment.
- Ah yes because it's the worker's responsibility to ensure that they are aware of all safety issues and health hazards and all safety equipment first, exists period, and second, works perfectly at all times.
  
  It's actually an OSHA violation if the employers don't make the workers aware of all that. All hazards have to be clearly communicated to the workers. If they don't know the safety issues and necessary safety equipment, the employer fucked up. There's practically no way for the worker to ever be at fault here unless they are willfully disobeying the employer to do something they know is unsafe.
  Even then you could argue the employer should've known better than to hire them lmao

81 comments