MPs will hold a Parliamentary debate on silicosis amid mounting scrutiny over lung-shredding dust destroying workers lives, with a long-running investigation by The i Paper revealing how young kitchen stonemasons are falling ill and dying from the deadly condition.
Next week’s Westminster debate, called by Liberal Democrat MP Liz Jarvis, will be attended by the widow and sister-in-law of George Elliott, a stonemason who died from silicosis after being exposed to toxic dust during a career which saw him work on refurbishments at No 10 Downing Street.
In 2024, The i Paper revealed that the UK’s first cases of silicosis in stonemasons cutting fashionable engineered stone – or quartz – kitchen worktops had been diagnosed by doctors after epidemics of the lung disease in other countries.
Currently, more than 50 UK quartz tradesmen have been diagnosed, four of whom have died, but analysis by leading workplace health and hygiene experts sent to senior NHS officials has warned case numbers could be as high as 1,000 in a workforce of 7,000.
Our Killer Kitchens campaign, launched in December last year, has led to the Health and Safety Executive’s (HSE) most significant crackdown on the engineered stone sector and been praised by MPs and workplace hygiene experts.
“By shining a light on how corners are being cut on the health of workers just to shave a few pounds off the cost of a kitchen worktop, this campaign can and will save lives,” said Kevin Bampton, chief executive officer of the British Occupational Hygiene Society.
As part of its intervention, HSE has this month introduced its first regulatory guidance specifically for quartz to tell firms cutting high-silica quartz using water suppressing tools is a legal requirement.
To ensure firms are following the rules and not exposing workers to toxic silica dust, the regulator’s inspectors have launched a nationwide inspection blitz of 1,000 businesses.
In addition, The i Paper’s campaign has also prompted a new safety kitemark-type scheme from the industry and British Occupational Hygiene Society to inform homeowners that worktops cut at participating firms have been processed safely to protect workers from deadly dust.
MPs are now set to grill the Government minister overseeing the HSE, Sir Stephen Timms, during a debate in Westminster Hall addressing the impact from the occupational lung disease.
The debate, called by Jarvis, Liberal Democrat MP for Eastleigh, is expected to hear calls for enhanced protection for stonemasons and improved awareness of silicosis.
Jarvis is the constituency MP of Caroline Hudson, whose brother-in-law George Elliot died of silicosis in 2023, aged 64.
Mr Elliott had worked at No 10 Downing Street on a makeover of former Prime Minister David Cameron’s flat during a 40-year career cutting natural stones marble, granite, sandstone and, later on, manmade quartz.
Sandra Elliott’s husband George, a stonemason, died of silicosis (Photo: Teri Pengilley/The i Paper)In February, The i Paper spoke to Ms Hudson and her sister, Sandra Elliott, Mr Elliott’s widow, who spoke of their heartache at his death, and revealed how he would come back from work covered in white dust due to a lack of safety equipment being supplied while he cut stone.
Ms Hudson said: “He’d come home and he’d be absolutely white.”
As his illness worsened, he later relied on oxygen cylinders to breathe and struggled to walk.
“If we went out, I would have to take about six cylinders for two hours. George would have a cylinder on his back, and he’d be walking, and then if he felt tired, we would have to come home,” said Ms Elliott.
Ms Hudson said: “I remember he sat at your kitchen table, hooked up to his oxygen machine, and he couldn’t even laugh, because it was too much of a struggle.
“It was painful to watch and to see him deteriorate.”
Sandra and George Elliott on their wedding day in 2008 (Photo: Sandra Elliot)In March, Jarvis backed The i Paper’s Killer Kitchens campaign, and put forward a parliamentary bill calling for a crackdown on deadly dust, one of the campaign’s demands.
“I’m really grateful to The i Paper for raising awareness on this hugely important issue and applaud the paper’s campaign to ensure more families are not left grieving their loved ones as a result of this terrible disease,” Jarvis said.
“I’m hugely concerned that silicosis could be a scandal on the scale of asbestosis in the UK unless prompt action is taken now to protect workers.
“My constituent Caroline Hudson came to see me about her brother-in-law George Elliott, who tragically died from silicosis.
“The family’s experience has made them determined to raise awareness and push for a change in the law to protect workers and I am doing everything I can to support them with that.
“It’s absolutely heartbreaking that construction workers, stonemasons and kitchen fitters – including very young men who should have had their whole lives ahead of them – are dying from what is an entirely preventable disease.”
She urged the Government to act as she highlighted the burden placed on families of stonemasons stricken with silicosis then forced out of work due to ill health, and the impact on the NHS.
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