More than 1,000 UK stonemasons could have silicosis from cutting popular quartz kitchen worktops without proper safety measures in place, analysis shared with The i Paper shows.
The report sets out the case for a targeted national screening programme of the some 7,000 tradespeople who currently work with the high-silica stone in the UK to identify cases of the lung disease as soon as possible.
Sent to senior NHS officials, the analysis by leading workplace health and hygiene experts shows early detection of cases through screening would help prevent stonemasons exposed to dangerous silica dust from becoming more seriously ill.
Early diagnosis of silicosis can stop the disease progressing in around half of cases, if the worker is removed from exposure to the dust, the study said.
This would also be likely to prevent more ex-stonemasons who cut quartz – also known as engineered stone – being referred for high-risk lung transplants costing the NHS millions of pounds, the study found.
The report said that if all affected stonemasons were screened, and this averted one additional lung transplant each year, the screening programme would save more money than it cost.
However, a more reactive approach would see the NHS grappling with more significant and irreversible illness, with the resulting increased demand for lung transplants likely to impact survival rates for other respiratory disease sufferers, as well as incurring greater costs, it concluded.
50 known UK cases – and four deaths
More than 50 UK quartz workers have been diagnosed with silicosis since mid-2023, four of whom have died, with doctors warning cases are likely to rise significantly in the coming years.
Many of the tradesmen are in their twenties and thirties, with several, including a 23-year-old, referred for lung transplants.
Last week, The i Paper revealed that bosses will avoid prosecution over the silicosis death of quartz stonemason Wessam Al-Jundi, 28, due to a lack of evidence.
He died in 2024 after being admitted to hospital for a lung transplant and had been exposed to quartz dust for five years.
The first UK cases of quartz-induced silicosis were revealed by The i Paper in February 2024.
The i Paper’s Killer Kitchens campaign has already secured a number of significant victories, with the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) announcing for the first time that firms are legally required to stop “dry cutting” of engineered stone without water suppression tools to dampen deadly dust.
More than 50 UK quartz workers have been diagnosed with silicosis since mid-2023As part of the crackdown, HSE’s most significant intervention in the sector to date, a nationwide inspection campaign of 1,000 firms has been launched to ensure the safety rules are being followed, with rogue factory bosses facing up to two years in prison.
4,000 stone-workers ‘being put in danger’
Kevin Bampton, chief executive of the British Occupational Hygiene Society and the lead official who, along with respiratory consultant Dr Jo Feary, compiled the report, described a screening programme as “the missing piece of the jigsaw”.
He told The i Paper: “The Australian national screening programme caught hundreds of cases of overexposure to respirable crystalline silica.
“These were cases that almost certainly would not have been identified until the disease had progressed to dangerous levels. Because of the speed of accelerated silicosis developing even within months, the normal issues of spend now to save in later life don’t apply.
“Just a few dozen cases diverted from long-term treatment, the transplant list and disability benefits would save the cost of screening.”
The report estimates up to 4,000 of the UK’s roughly 7,000 quartz stone-workers, many of them migrants, are in the informal or illegal sector where safety regulations – such as wet cutting – are being flouted by exploitative employers.
Marek Marzec died in November 2024, seven months after he was diagnosed with silicosisEvidence from the informal sector indicted the “absence of any meaningful or effective controls on exposure” to dust, the study said.
Under realistic worst-case projections put forward, the number requiring transplants may be in double if not triple figures, which would “significantly disrupt the current resource and capacity for lung transplantation”, the report stated.
According to the NHS, 120 lung transplants a year take place in England for children and adults.
California, which is grappling with an epidemic of silicosis among engineered stone-workers has seen 562 cases, 31 deaths and 58 tradesmen referred for lung transplants since 2019.
In Australia, where around 1,000 silicosis cases in engineered stone-workers have been uncovered since 2015, a national screening programme of quartz workers indicated around one in four of those screened had silicosis.
The explosion in silicosis cases led to the country introducing the world’s first ban on the popular kitchen stone in 2024, with Dr Ryan Hoy, a Melbourne respiratory physician treating more than 100 silicosis patients, saying Australia’s results should be “extremely concerning” for other countries where engineered stone is popular but there is no screening of workers.
“A conservative estimate of cases, based upon the Australian probability, would suggest at least 1,000 cases [in the UK], but that these cases are likely to include more cases of accelerated silicosis,” the analysis found.
A worst-case scenario
While data on very high short-term exposure to silica dust is not widely available, previous catastrophic workplace exposures indicated the possible silicosis case number could be even higher than 1,000, the report noted.
It cited the Hawks Nest tunnel disaster in the 1930s in the US where the sickness level among tradesmen was estimated at 80 per cent with a mortality rate of up to a third, leading to the deaths of hundreds of tradesmen.
The Bohs used this example to extrapolate that a “reasonable worst-case scenario …that there may be as many as 3,200 cases of silicosis from the informal sector”.
If one in six UK workers in this informal sector came forward to undergo screening, Australia’s detection rate indicated up to 125 cases of silicosis may be identified in the first year at a cost of £200,000, the study found.
But if this screening programme prevented just one lung transplant it would save the NHS more than £500,000 the analysis said, with patients also able to provide regulators with information about firms exposing workers to dangerous dust.
A spokesperson from the Department for Work and Pensions, which oversees the HSE, said: “We’re tackling this issue head-on with the Health and Safety Executive, who will be enforcing new guidance it recently published to drive up standards across the industry and make sure the lives of workers are protected.”
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