Stonemasons as young as 23 need lung transplants after contracting a deadly respiratory disease from cutting kitchen work surfaces, the doctor treating a rising number of UK patients has warned.
Dr Johanna Feary, a consultant in occupational lung disease, told the All Party Parliamentary Party Group (APPG) on Occupational Safety & Health about rising cases of engineered-stone induced silicosis among UK tradespeople.
Union officials at the Westminster meeting, hosted by Thompsons Solicitors and the Trade Union Congress, repeatedly urged the Government to ban engineered stone – known as quartz.
They also warned of a potential “epidemic” of cases in young kitchen stone workers in the coming years as current monitoring is not keeping pace with the new rapid form of the disease.
Lord Hendy, a Labour peer and vice-chair of the APPG, also called on the Government to consider a ban on engineered stone.
Government minister Sir Stephen Timms, who oversees the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), said that on the risk of silica dust “we are reflecting on this topic”.
Last year, Australia became the first country to ban quartz after hundreds of stonemasons were diagnosed with silicosis from inhaling toxic silica dust from engineered stone.
The i Paper revealed last year that the UK’s first cases had also recently been detected after cutting quartz in workplaces with poor safely measures in place.
In August 2024, Dr Feary was the lead author on a paper looking at the first eight cases of engineered stone-induced silicosis among workers in the UK.
Numbers have now grown to 45 – around a 460 per cent increase – she told the APPG meeting, with about 40 treated at her Royal Brompton Hospital. Their average age is 31, down from the previous average of 34.
At least two men are known to have died from the deadly lung disease after cutting quartz slabs which have become hugely popular in kitchen makeovers.
Dr Feary said: “We have watched the disaster of engineered stone silicosis unfold in Australia and in 12 different countries around the world, and we have only just started to see cases in the UK.
“I think there are a number of reasons for that. Firstly, the product was introduced quite late, a lot later in the UK than was elsewhere.
“Secondly, it’s asymptomatic when you first get it, so people are walking around with silicosis from engineered stone, but they haven’t got symptoms yet, and our health surveillance programme at the moment does not identify those cases.”
The APPG on Occupational Safety and Health held a meeting in Westminster on silicosis and the risk of silica dust (Photo: Mark Thomas/ Unite the Union)She pointed to Government-led screening programmes of Australia’s workforce which uncovered the scale of their problem, where more than 500 cases of silicosis were diagnosed from 2015 to 2022.
“In my clinic, the average age of patients is 31; the youngest is 23, who I’ve just referred for a lung transplant,” she said.
“These are young men, and they have only had a few years of exposure to silica, and even if they were having the current health surveillance program and the chest X-ray after, say, 10 years, they are not going to be picked up.
“If you get a young man in his 20s going to his GP with a cough, he will probably get given a course for antibiotics or a ventolin inhaler and told to come back if it doesn’t get better.
“But they’re on zero-hours contracts, and they’re not going to keep taking time off if they don’t think they’ve been taken seriously.”
(L-R): Jason Poulter from Unite, Lord Hendy vice-chair of the APPG and Daniel Poet, artner and industrial disease specialist at Thompsons Solicitors, (Photo: Mark Thomas/ Unite the Union)Young men with silicosis were also not getting the same financial recuperation as patients with asbestos-related illnesses, she added.
She was writing letters “most weeks” on behalf of patients who has been forced out of work through ill health asking for them not to be evicted from their homes.
“They’re on Universal Credit, and they haven’t got the financial means to pay their rent,” she said.
“And if, in contrast, they have an asbestos-related cancer, for example, they would get a much quicker payout.
“They’re not only worried about their health, they’re not only worried that they’re going to die, but they’re also worried about their financial security. I think that’s something that we need to react to as a nation.”
Marek Marzec, 48, spoke to The i Paper from his hospital bed just weeks before he died of silicosis (Photo: Whittington Hospital)Lord Hendy said more must be done to protect stonemasons, many of whom are non-unionised migrant workers and “particularly vulnerable to exploitation”.
Joe Clarke, a Unite the Union officer, backed calls to ban the stone and pointed to the difficulties of unionising young workers cutting it for small firms who may be flouting safety regulations.
He said: “We’re going to see an epidemic of this, unfortunately, over the next few years.
“You only have to go and look in anybody’s modern kitchen these days, in relation to the products that have been used – it’s engineered stone.”
Jason Poulter, Unite’s national officer for the construction sector, backed a campaign to warn workers in all sectors of the risk from silica dust.
“But the engineered stone is going to be our first call. Until we can prove that it’s safe…we would be calling for that ban on that synthetic material,” he said.
Hundreds of deaths a year linked to silica dust
Silica dust has been a threat to workers for centuries, with an estimated 1,000 deaths in a year in the UK, the APPG meeting heard.
Man-made engineered stone such as quartz can contain as much as 95 per cent respirable crystalline silica (RCS), a dust linked to silicosis.
Many natural stones do also contain high levels of silica – like sandstone – with silicosis afflicting professions such as mining or construction for decades.
Compared with workers with silicosis in other industries, doctors have associated engineered stone silicosis with a shorter duration of exposure to silica, faster disease progression and higher mortality.
Dry cutting high-silica stone without water-suppression tools puts workers at risk of RCS, which can shred lungs.
The APPG heard testimony from a stonemason being represented by Thompsons who was diagnosed with silicosis aged 37 after being exposed to heavy dust at work
Now constantly out of breath, the consequences of his illness had been “life-changing”, he said.
Jennifer Hoyle, a consultant respiratory physician, said after developing silicosis the chances of developing lung cancer doubled.
She added health officials didn’t yet know the size and scale of the problem of engineered stone silicosis in the UK.
Baroness Rita Donaghy, a Labour peer who sits on the APPG, called the HSE to be “rebuilt” by the Government after it had been “slashed to ribbons”.
Daniel Poet, partner and industrial disease specialist at Thompsons Solicitors, said: “Silicosis is a preventable disease, yet we are seeing younger and younger workers left with life-changing and often fatal health problems.
“The law is clear: employers have a duty to protect their workers. But too many are failing, and it is costing lives.”
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