A young tradesman with silicosis who spoke out from his hospital bed to demand a Government crackdown on the toxic dust generated from cutting kitchen worktops has died aged 32 from a severe form of the lung disease.
Malik Al-Khalil was among the first UK-based stonemasons diagnosed with silicosis from cutting quartz – or engineered stone – worktops, which have become hugely popular in kitchen makeovers.
Speaking to The i Paper at the Royal Brompton Hospital in 2024, just a year after his diagnosis, he required oxygen to breathe and was unable to walk without his legs buckling.
He was diagnosed with silicosis after just five years cutting quartz in a London workshop. The material has been blamed for an alarming rise in a rapid and deadly form of silicosis among workmen.
Mr Al-Khalil, who fled the war in his homeland and arrived in the UK in 2014, died in Hillingdon Hospital in October 2025, an inquest opening at West London Coroner’s Court heard.
His death was recorded as silicoproteinosis – also known as acute silicosis – due to dust exposure, and respiratory tract infection.
Slicoproteinosis is a severe, progressive form of the lung disease associated with high exposure to silica dust. He had been living at a care home in Southall at the time of his death.
Lydia Brown, the senior coroner, said: “This man was exposed to silica dust through his employment.
“I am deeply concerned regarding this and this is not the first case that has come to West London’s attention.”
She said she would notify the HSE who may “wish to look into it along with the other cases”. The HSE has started initial enquiries to decide if it can investigate.
Malik Al-Khalil , spoke to The i Paper from hospital in 2024 wanting to warn other stonemasons of the dangers of silica dust (Photo: Tom Pilston)Mr Al-Khalil was determined to speak out in 2024 because he wanted to warn other young tradesmen of the dangers of cutting engineered stone – and to demand a Government crackdown on the material. “Of course it should be banned,” he said at the time.
He described being caked from head to toe in deadly white dust while he inhaled working at firms that flouted safety regulations on cutting stone.
That same year, The i Paper revealed the first UK cases of silicosis among workers cutting engineered stone. The weight of medical evidence continues to grow – and the death toll.
Killer Kitchens campaign has new urgency
The Killer Kitchens campaign was launched as a result of the rising cases of silicosis linked to engineered stone, to demand stronger protections for workers like Mr Al-Khalil.
The campaign has secured a ban on deadly quartz dust through the Health and Safety Executive’s first ever regulatory guidance on quartz. The regulator has launched nationwide inspections of 1,000 firms as a result of the campaign, uncovering hundreds of breaches of health and safety law.
A new kitemark scheme from the industry to show stone has been cut safely without exposure to deadly dust is also now being used by major kitchen makeover firms as a result of The i Paper‘s reporting.
However, following Mr Al-Khalil’s death, leading health experts have reignited calls for the Government to meet a key demand of the Killer Kitchens campaign – to set up a screening programme of the workforce.
Kevin Bampton, head of the British Occupational Hygiene Society (BOHS), called for the HSE to test and record cases of silicosis in UK workers and signpost those exposed to an “efficient diagnosis and treatment pathway in the NHS”.
“Neglect, ignorance and greed on the part of some employers is the root cause of this tragedy,” he said.
“However, the fact that workers affected by silicosis are being thrown through a pinball machine of politics and bureaucracy, undoubtedly delayed access to specialist treatment. Speed is vital.
“A targeted screening programme will save lives and save the NHS money.”
As a manmade stone, quartz has a much higher silica content than natural stone like granite or marble.
Inhaling this toxic substance leads to the incurable lung disease silicosis, as well as other respiratory diseases like chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and in the long-term, raises the risk of developing lung cancer.
Silicosis has affected workers for centuries, with miners and construction workers among trades historically at risk. But with cases of engineered stone silicosis, workers have been falling ill, and dying, at much younger ages and after less exposure time than has been the case in the past.
‘When it starts in your body, it will not stop’
Mr Al-Khalil said in 2024: “I want to let all the people working in this work know what’s happening from this material. I don’t like to see or to hear that someone is in a hospital like my situation because it’s not easy.
“This silicosis, when it starts in your body, it will not stop.”
He said he knew of nine other tradesmen, including seven from his home town in Syria, who had contracted silicosis from cutting stone worktops in the UK, where around 60 quartz workers, many in their 20s, 30s and 40s, have been diagnosed with silicosis since mid-2023.
Mr Al-Khalil came to the UK from Syria in 2014, escaping his wartorn homeland to start a new life in England (Photo: Tom Pilston)Mr Al-Khalil worked without any safety measures, such as “wet” cutting to suppress dust, or specialist Respiratory Protective Equipment (RPE) for workers, who were instead provided with standard masks.
No health and safety inspections were carried out either, he said, as he called for the Government to ban quartz outright.
“Of course [it should be banned] because the silicosis is coming from this material. But this job will be for the Government. The Government should start to do something about this,” he said.
One of the firms Mr Al-Khalil worked at in West London, Yes Marble, had also employed his friend, Wessam Al-Jundi, who died aged 28 in Harefield Hospital after being referred for a lung transplant following his silicosis diagnosis. The company has now stopped trading.
The HSE and the Metropolitan Police launched an investigation into Mr Al-Jundi’s death, with the HSE assuming primacy and deciding there was insufficient evidence to bring a prosecution.
West London’s coroner also opened a rare Prevention of Future Death (PFD) report into Mr Al-Jundi’s death before an inquest was held, in which she called for a “timetable for action” from the Government to act over growing numbers of silicosis cases among young kitchen workers.
An HSE spokesperson said: “We are aware of Malik Ibrahim Al-Khalil’s tragic death, and we offer our condolences to his loved ones. We are making enquiries which will determine whether we are able to open an investigation.”
My heartbreaking hospital interview with a dying man who wanted to warn others of the dangers of engineered stone
By Joe Duggan
When I met Malik in July, 2024, he carried the same hopes as many young men. He wanted to get married. He hoped to pass his driving test. He dreamed about leaving London and moving to the coast. Bournemouth or Brighton. A place where the air was fresh.
“I will make myself in a new life without problem,” the 31-year old said.
But the fits of coughing that convulsed his painfully thin frame as he lay in a bed at London’s Royal Brompton Hospital told another, tragic story. Fifteen months after we met, he had died.
Malik Al-Khalil, spoke about wanting to get married, move to the coast and pass his driving test. But he died at the age of 32 as a result of silicosis (Photo: Tom Pilston)As he spoke to me for an hour and a half, the devastating toll silicosis had taken on his body was apparent. His weight had plummeted from 11 and a half stone to just seven and a half stone.
Doctors had told him he was too weak for a lung transplant – a procedure for patients with end-stage lung failure which can buy a few more years of survival, but is not a cure.
But Malik had bravely wanted to speak out about the dangers of silica dust to other stonemasons.
Despite the dire circumstances inflicted on him, he showed little anger towards his former employers, and faced the very real prospect of a tragically early death with humbling courage.
So did Marek Marzec, a 48-year-old stonemason I interviewed from hospital as he received palliative care a couple of months after Malik. He also tragically died in 2024, just seven months after his silicosis diagnosis.a
The i Paper decided to launch our Killer Kitchens campaign to push for better protection for workers like Marek and Malik,
Earlier this year, the HSE responded to our reporting with its first ever regulatory guidance on engineered stone declaring an effective ban on dry cutting of quartz without water suppressing tools.
It also launched a nationwide inspection crackdown on 1,000 firms cutting quartz kitchen worktops after our call for firmer action against rogue employers.
But more needs to be done. As Kevin Bampton told me, only a targeted screening programme will save lives before it is too late.
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