{"id":23,"date":"2026-05-22T16:46:19","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T16:46:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/summitrelocationtimess.com\/?p=23"},"modified":"2026-05-22T16:46:19","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T16:46:19","slug":"after-decades-of-quiet-rumbling-an-epidemic-is-erupting-among-california-stoneworkers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/summitrelocationtimess.com\/?p=23","title":{"rendered":"After Decades of Quiet Rumbling, an Epidemic Is Erupting Among California Stoneworkers"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Luis Hernandez, then 35<\/span>, woke to a\u00a0gray, hazy sky on Feb. 17<\/span>, 2024<\/span>. He opted for a\u00a0warm sweater and cargo pants with pockets just big enough to hold his spare canister of oxygen, but he hoped he wouldn\u2019t need it. It would be a\u00a0big day out for him and his friends\u2009\u2014\u2009the Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena, Calif., was hosting a\u00a0special Pokemon Go event where some of the rarest Pokemon could be\u00a0found.<\/p>

Read more ICE-Cold Cash: Members of Congress Took More than $1.7 Million from ICE Contractors<\/a><\/p>\n

When the group arrived, they headed straight to the belly of the bowl, blanketed with bright green turf. Hernandez settled into a\u00a0rhythm: Walk 50<\/span>\u00a0feet. Pause for 30<\/span>\u00a0minutes. Catch some Pokemon. Walk another 50<\/span>\u00a0feet. Pause another 30<\/span>\u00a0minutes. Catch some\u00a0Pokemon.<\/p>\n

Walk another 50<\/span>\u00a0feet. Pause another 30<\/span>\u00a0minutes.<\/p>\n

When he started gasping for air, he sat down\u2009\u2014\u2009on a\u00a0chair if he was lucky, the turf if he was\u00a0not.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Eight hours in, he estimated he had walked no more than half a\u00a0mile.<\/p>\n

If he had moved any faster, he would have\u00a0suffocated.<\/p>\n

Hernandez had to check the oximeter clamped to his right pointer finger the way most people check their phones. If his heart rate passed 135<\/span> beats per minute, or his oxygen level sank below 80<\/span>%, he was in\u00a0trouble.<\/p>\n

A few months earlier, his life had looked very\u00a0different.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hernandez\u2009\u2014\u2009whose real name we are withholding for his protection, given his immigration status\u2009\u2014\u2009had gone two decades without going to the doctor. He played one or two games of soccer every weekend. He was, in his words, \u200b\u201c<\/span>perfectly healthy.\u201d That changed in December 2023<\/span>, when Hernandez was diagnosed with a\u00a0condition called silicosis. He had worked for more than a\u00a0decade with engineered stone, a\u00a0novel material made primarily of crushed quartz that is commonly used to make countertops. His doctor warned that, if Hernandez ignored the condition, he could be dead within a\u00a0couple of\u00a0years.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Silicosis is an irreversible lung disease that can turn fatal. The only way to get it is by inhaling large amounts of silica dust, small particles of a\u00a0mineral found in stone, sand, gravel and cement\u2009\u2014\u2009the kind of materials Hernandez handled every day as a\u00a0stoneworker.<\/p>\n

The disease has affected humans for millennia. In roughly 400<\/span>\u00a0B.C., the Greek physician and philosopher Hippocrates described a\u00a0lung disease that caused difficulty breathing in miners. In 1705<\/span>, an Italian physician documented the disease in stonecutters. But starting in 2019<\/span>, California has seen a\u00a0surge in silicosis diagnoses among people working with engineered stone in\u00a0particular.<\/p>\n

The California Department of Public Health has described it as an epidemic, one primarily plaguing young Latino immigrants like Hernandez who work in shops that fabricate engineered\u00a0stone.<\/p>\n

Engineered stone was invented in the 1960<\/span>s and began being imported into the United States from Israel and Spain around the 1990<\/span>s. Often advertised as a\u00a0cheaper alternative to marble or granite, it\u2019s made by pulverizing stone like quartz into a\u00a0fine powder, then mixing in polymer resin (to bind the crushed-up pieces) and pigments (to make it pretty). Various manufacturers ship their slabs to stone fabrication shops all over the world to be cut, polished and sold, usually in the form of countertops, tables, desks or showers, made available at retailers like Costco and Home\u00a0Depot.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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At Hernandez\u2019s fabrication shop in Los Angeles County, he operated the water saw, a\u00a0rotating blade flanked by spray hoses that slices through stone under a\u00a0continuous stream of water. With each cut, silica dust particles would fly into the air. Once a\u00a0slab was in the proper shape, Hernandez would pass it on to his coworkers, who used their own power tools to polish it, releasing more clouds of\u00a0dust.<\/p>\n

If you live in the United States, there\u2019s a\u00a0good chance you have engineered stone in your home or have come across it in someone else\u2019s. Today, engineered stone is among the most popular countertop materials in the country, thanks to its durability, heat resistance and price. This demand has made the global engineered stone industry worth more than $29<\/span> billion, but it has led to devastating health consequences for\u00a0stoneworkers.<\/p>\n

Engineered stone contains more than 90<\/span>% silica content\u2009\u2014\u2009double that of granite and more than 18<\/span> times that of marble. That means, with the transition from natural to engineered stone, workers like Hernandez are inhaling unprecedented amounts of silica dust. When he and his coworkers transform slabs of engineered stone into the puzzle pieces of counters and shower walls, countless nanosized silica particles are released\u2009\u2014\u2009so small they can penetrate respirators and pass directly into the\u00a0lungs.<\/p>\n

In 2012<\/span>, the first outbreak of silicosis linked to engineered stone was reported in Israel. In 2014<\/span>, the first U.S. case came to light in Texas. But in Hernandez\u2019s 15<\/span>\u00a0years in the stonecutting industry, he had never heard of the\u00a0risk.<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>There was no information saying that what I\u00a0was doing was bad,\u201d he\u00a0says.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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CT scans of Luis Hernandez\u2019s lungs from July 2024\u2014taken before Hernandez’s transplant\u2014show a landscape of white nodules and scarring, evidence of advanced silicosis.\n\nIMAGES COURTESY OF BRAYTON PURCELL LLP<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Hernandez and his coworkers believed they were taking full precautions\u2009\u2014\u2009masking up, wearing safety glasses and blasting streams of water when cutting stone to suppress dust. None of these workers had any idea those measures were powerless against\u00a0silica.<\/p>\n

Neither did the shop owners\u2009\u2014\u2009themselves also often immigrants who started out as stoneworkers\u2009\u2014\u2009because the manufacturers didn\u2019t properly warn them, according to allegations in a\u00a0lawsuit Hernandez filed against dozens of engineered stone companies in 2024<\/span>. For years, the lawsuit charges, manufacturers neglected to provide stoneworkers with adequate safety instructions or warning labels, which are legally\u00a0required.<\/p>\n

Though other states have cases too, California has emerged as an epicenter. According to Raphael Metzger, an attorney representing engineered stoneworkers with silicosis, that\u2019s partly because California has a\u00a0robust surveillance program that most states\u00a0lack.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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One 2023<\/span> study identified 52<\/span> stoneworkers in California who were diagnosed with silicosis. Their median age was 45<\/span>. Of these, 10<\/span> had died and 20<\/span> had reached the disease\u2019s most advanced stage. That means nearly 60<\/span>% of the identified workers were killed or made severely ill by silica\u00a0dust.<\/p>\n

The following year, Australia, seeking to address its own silicosis epidemic, banned engineered stone after determining the fabrication process was too dangerous. But the United States hasn\u2019t instituted a\u00a0similar ban\u2009\u2014\u2009and it probably\u00a0won\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Even when a\u00a0product is found to endanger workers and prompts a\u00a0government review, agencies like the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) often fail to pass effective regulations or even enforce existing\u00a0ones.<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>In the United States, we don\u2019t ban products,\u201d Metzger says. After all, the Environmental Protection Agency only finalized its ban on asbestos in 2024<\/span>, after a\u00a0decades-long fight by health and safety advocates and an annual death toll of nearly 40<\/span>,000<\/span>.<\/p>\n

Now, as a\u00a0new occupational epidemic is spreading, Hernandez is just one victim among hundreds\u2009\u2014\u2009and, likely, many more\u00a0soon.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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CONNECTING THE DOTS<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Take a\u00a0deep breath. Feel your lungs fill like balloons, slowly inflating and\u00a0deflating.<\/p>\n

Now, take shorter, shallower breaths. Your lungs may flutter, but they don\u2019t\u00a0fill.<\/p>\n

These shorter breaths cannot sustain you. But they were all Hernandez\u00a0had.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a\u00a0reason Hernandez only recently began suffering the symptoms of silicosis. It usually takes years to build up enough silica dust in one\u2019s lungs for silicosis to emerge, and engineered stone only became popular in the United States in the\u00a02010<\/span>s.<\/p>\n

In 2018<\/span>, two stoneworkers in their mid-30<\/span>s died from silicosis in California. By 2022<\/span>, the state had identified 50<\/span> additional cases. Today, California has at least 536<\/span> such cases\u2009\u2014\u2009and 29<\/span>\u00a0deaths.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Outside of California, silicosis is still considered rare. \u200b\u201c<\/span>It\u2019s something that we learn about for one minute in medical school and we expect we won\u2019t really ever see it again,\u201d says Dr. Jane Fazio, a\u00a0pulmonologist at UCLA. Between 1968<\/span> and 2004<\/span>, the disease\u2019s U.S. death toll decreased from 1<\/span>,065<\/span> to 165<\/span> per year, as the mining industry declined and national safety standards were established for silica dust\u00a0exposure.<\/p>\n

So Fazio was puzzled when she encountered her first silicosis patient in\u00a02021<\/span>.<\/p>\n

The patient was a\u00a0Latino man in his 50<\/span>s, who had flown from Washington to Los Angeles in hopes of landing a\u00a0spot on California\u2019s waitlist for a\u00a0lung transplant. Instead, all he had landed was a\u00a0hospital bed at the Olive View-UCLA Medical\u00a0Center.<\/p>\n

At first glance, the patient was \u200b\u201c<\/span>a little bit too thin,\u201d Fazio recalls. In medicine, they would call his condition \u200b\u201c<\/span>cachectic.\u201d In English, we might say he was wasting away\u2009\u2014\u2009losing body mass fast. His temples had sunken in, and he relied on a\u00a0nasal cannula for oxygen. Any movement could overwhelm him. If this was how he looked on the outside, Fazio could only imagine the state of his\u00a0lungs.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Pulmonologists use a\u00a0variety of tests to diagnose people with breathing problems, including CT imaging. On a\u00a0CT scan, healthy lungs look like black, oval-shaped\u00a0masses.<\/p>\n

Silicosis muddies that image. Imagine dipping a\u00a0brush in white paint and flicking it over a\u00a0black canvas. That\u2019s sort of how inhaled silica looks, like small white dots speckling the lungs. Over time, those dots expand until they appear, as Fazio describes them, \u200b\u201c<\/span>like blocks of concrete.\u201d When the illness reaches an advanced stage, those solid white areas engulf the\u00a0lungs.<\/p>\n

On this patient\u2019s CT scans, Fazio remembers, the black canvas of his lungs was completely covered in white, meaning the silicosis had advanced to the condition\u2019s last stage, called severe progressive massive fibrosis, in which lung tissue has grown inflamed and scarred over. When lungs are scarred, they can\u2019t fully expand. People with severe silicosis can get winded simply from standing up. They might find themselves out of breath sitting on the\u00a0sofa.<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>People basically die from chronic suffocation,\u201d Fazio\u00a0says.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The only treatment available for advanced silicosis is a\u00a0lung transplant. To get one, you have to be sick enough to need it but healthy enough to survive. You also need health insurance\u2009\u2014\u2009without it, a\u00a0lung transplant costs more than $1<\/span>.2<\/span>\u00a0million.<\/p>\n

Because Fazio\u2019s patient could barely walk, he was deemed too sick to qualify for a\u00a0transplant. Over subsequent checkups, Fazio saw him deteriorate until he was admitted to a\u00a0nursing facility, where he presumably passed\u00a0away.<\/p>\n

Haunted by the case, Fazio decided to investigate, hunting through her hospital\u2019s records for other silicosis diagnoses. She stumbled upon the beginning of California\u2019s silicosis\u00a0epidemic.<\/p>\n

Just up the coast, another physician, Dr. Sheiphali Gandhi of the University of California, San Francisco, was on the cusp of the same discovery. In 2019<\/span>, her hospital saw its first case of silicosis in a\u00a0young person working with engineered stone. An epidemiologist then scraped hospital data for cases of silicosis in people younger than 50<\/span>. By May 2022<\/span>, Gandhi had identified 18<\/span> cases of silicosis associated with engineered stone, which she presented at that year\u2019s American Thoracic Society Conference in San Francisco. Fazio was in the\u00a0audience.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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After the presentation, Fazio approached Gandhi, telling her, \u200b\u201c<\/span>I have 18<\/span> cases of my\u00a0own.\u201d<\/p>\n

That was the start of their collaboration. Fazio has since seen more than 100<\/span> cases of silicosis associated with engineered stone in her clinic\u2009\u2014\u2009\u200b\u201c<\/span>an extraordinary amount\u201d for a\u00a0U.S. pulmonologist, she notes. She and Gandhi suspect their case count will rise as more workers get tested and diagnosed, and as medical awareness grows. A\u00a02023<\/span> study they coauthored found that more than half of identified silicosis patients had been misdiagnosed at first, usually with tuberculosis or\u00a0pneumonia.<\/p>\n

By 2023<\/span>, Fazio and her colleagues began visiting stone fabrication shops and advertising their free silicosis screening\u00a0program.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s how Luis Hernandez first heard of the\u00a0disease.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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THE DIAGNOSIS<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Hernandez grew up on his father\u2019s farm in the Mexican state of Michoac\u00e1n, in \u200b\u201c<\/span>a little town nobody knows\u201d on Mexico\u2019s west coast. In 2000<\/span>, after his parents divorced, 11<\/span>-year-old Hernandez immigrated with his mother to California, joining three of his older brothers in Los Angeles. He learned English while attending high school and graduated in\u00a02006<\/span>.<\/p>\n

After graduation, Hernandez, who is undocumented, followed in his brothers\u2019 footsteps, finding his first job at a\u00a0stone fabrication shop in San Fernando\u2009\u2014\u2009one of the few jobs that didn\u2019t require papers. He ended up staying for some 15<\/span>\u00a0years.<\/p>\n

When Hernandez started in the industry, natural stone was king. But by 2009<\/span>, the market was shifting toward cheaper, more durable, engineered stone. The difference was hard to ignore. When you cut into natural stone, \u200b\u201c<\/span>You get this wet dirt smell,\u201d he says. But with engineered stone, \u200b\u201c<\/span>You will get that burnt plastic, chemical kind of\u00a0smell.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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A stone countertop fabricator in Sun Valley, Calif., creates a silica dust cloud that, if inhaled, causes silicosis, an incurable lung disease that can turn fatal, on Oct. 31, 2023. Brian Van Der Brug \/ Los Angeles Times via Getty Images<\/span>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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In November 2023<\/span>, Hernandez came down with what seemed like the flu: a\u00a0high fever, sweats, a\u00a0cough and frequent breathlessness. But it didn\u2019t go away, and Hernandez \u200b\u201c<\/span>started feeling really, really, really, really bad.\u201d It was just coincidence that representatives from Fazio\u2019s clinic had visited his shop a\u00a0couple of months earlier, offering free\u00a0screenings.<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>They were telling us, even if you\u2019re healthy, you have to go and get checkups,\u201d Hernandez\u00a0recalls.<\/p>\n

By the time he saw Fazio in mid-December 2023<\/span>, Hernandez had dropped from 164<\/span>\u00a0pounds to\u00a0127<\/span>.<\/p>\n

On a\u00a0monitor, Fazio pulled up a\u00a0scan of Hernandez\u2019s lungs, and told him, \u200b\u201c<\/span>Your lungs could collapse.\u201d She could not say how long he had to live, Hernandez recalls, but if he kept deteriorating at his current rate, he could have anywhere from a\u00a0month to two years. Hernandez left the room and went down to the lobby to break the news to his family, fighting the urge to\u00a0cry.<\/p>

Read more Ramirez: \u201cThe call for accountability must not go unanswered. We need an independent prosecutor.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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IF THEY WON\u2019T BAN IT, LITIGATE IT<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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In attorney Raphael Metzger\u2019s three decades litigating toxic injury cases for workers, he had never seen silicosis affect men this young. In the past, his clients were mostly men in their 60<\/span>s or 70<\/span>s who had suffered lifelong occupational exposure to sand, drywall or bricks as sandblasters or\u00a0brickworkers.<\/p>\n

But in 2020<\/span>, a\u00a0physician referred an engineered stone worker named Victor Gonzalez to Metzger, and in February 2021<\/span>, Metzger filed a\u00a0case against engineered stone manufacturers on Gonzalez\u2019s behalf. Over the next couple of years, Metzger started seeing clients who were contracting silicosis in their 40<\/span>s, 30<\/span>s and even\u00a020<\/span>s.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>It\u2019s extremely tragic, because the disease has no cure,\u201d Metzger\u00a0says.<\/p>\n

While two dozen of Metzger\u2019s clients have gotten lung transplants\u2009\u2014\u2009which only last five to 10<\/span>\u00a0years\u2009\u2014\u2009at least six have died waiting, including Gonzalez. Many more remain on the waiting list, tethered to oxygen tanks in the\u00a0meantime.<\/p>\n

Today, Metzger, along with attorney James Nevin from a\u00a0separate California firm, represent around 800<\/span> clients with silicosis between them. Hernandez is among\u00a0them.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Hernandez\u2019s complaint, filed in California in January 2024<\/span>, contains 371<\/span> pages of evidence arguing that dozens of engineered stone manufacturers knew their products were hazardous but did not properly warn workers or shop owners. The complaint alleges that manufacturers failed to update their material safety data sheets\u2009\u2014\u2009in which they\u2019re legally required to outline the hazards of their products\u2009\u2014\u2009with adequate safety information or warning\u00a0labels.<\/p>\n

What Metzger and Nevin hope to show in court is not only that engineered stone is deadly but that, for years, manufacturers of engineered stone knew their products were hazardous and failed to give workers any\u00a0warning.<\/p>\n

In 2023<\/span>, representatives from one engineered stone company, Caesarstone, claimed to Australian regulators that they had only become aware that workers at fabrication shops were contracting silicosis in\u00a02010<\/span>.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s decades after the company started making the product, in 1987<\/span>, and two years after a\u00a0lawsuit was filed in Israel alleging that Caesarstone\u2019s products caused a\u00a0worker\u2019s silicosis. (In its opening statement to Australian regulators in 2023<\/span>, the company argued \u200b\u201c<\/span>a single action filed in 2008<\/span> does not give rise to a\u00a0more serious issue in the\u00a0industry.\u201d)<\/p>\n

By 2012<\/span>, Israeli researchers published a\u00a0report in the medical journal Chest detailing 25<\/span> workers with silicosis who were exposed to Caesarstone\u2019s products, the first of whom was diagnosed in\u00a01997<\/span>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Caesarstone added warning labels in 2010<\/span>, but they were placed on the backs of the slabs and typically covered \u200b\u201c<\/span>less than a\u00a0half of one percent\u201d of the surface area, the complaint alleges. Other manufacturers likewise made their warning labels so small as to be easily missed, according to Metzger. Caesarstone also allegedly failed to put on its labels any hazard warning symbols\u2009\u2014\u2009standardized pictures or symbols required by OSHA\u2019s Hazard Communication Standard\u2009\u2014\u2009until\u00a02018<\/span>.<\/p>\n

Hernandez\u2019s complaint referenced a\u00a0Caesarstone safety data sheet from March 2012<\/span>, in which the manufacturer stated that general room ventilation and respiratory equipment approved by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and Mine Safety and Health Administration, like N95<\/span> masks, would be adequate protection against vapors and dusts created from working with its products. A\u00a0January 2020<\/span> data sheet included in the complaint also suggested N95<\/span> masks would offer sufficient protection against silica particles associated with its\u00a0product.<\/p>\n

These are claims that, Hernandez contends, Caesarstone knew were\u00a0false.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Caesarstone declined to respond to specific questions because \u200b\u201c<\/span>these are matters of pending\u00a0litigation.\u201d<\/p>\n

In December 2023<\/span>, Cal\/\u200bOSHA, California\u2019s occupational safety and health agency, adopted an emergency temporary standard for work with engineered stone, essentially allowing Cal\/\u200bOSHA to close a\u00a0fabrication shop if they see anyone working without required safety measures. But Metzger questions how the agency\u2009\u2014\u2009which has seen its budget slashed and personnel reduced\u2009\u2014\u2009will enforce its emergency standard throughout California, where there are about 920<\/span>\u00a0stone fabrication\u00a0shops.<\/p>\n

To date, there also isn\u2019t an organized labor movement to help protect workers in fabrication shops, as there is in other trades. Almost no fabrication shopworkers belong to a\u00a0union, Nevin says, and the trade associations that do exist in the industry are dominated by the\u00a0manufacturers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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One reason for this is that the shops tend to be small, informal work settings that are often family-owned, explains Kevin Riley, director of UCLA\u2019s Labor Occupational Safety and Health program. It\u2019s difficult to organize such a\u00a0fragmented workforce, where someone\u2019s boss could be their\u00a0uncle.<\/p>\n

Immigrant workers may also feel less comfortable speaking out, especially with ongoing immigration raids, and may prioritize putting food on the table over worrying about organizing, he\u00a0adds.<\/p>\n

Either way, Riley doesn\u2019t \u200b\u201c<\/span>think unionization is going to fix the problem\u201d of silicosis. \u200b\u201c<\/span>We\u2019re dealing with a\u00a0product that\u2019s very, very dangerous,\u201d he\u00a0says.<\/p>\n

Even if regulators could enforce their rules, experts are wary of trusting them to fully protect workers. Under federal law and precedent set in lower courts, OSHA is only allowed to adopt regulations that are technologically and economically feasible for industry implementation. And according to a\u00a02024<\/span> study, the cost of precautions needed to fully protect people working with engineered stone\u2009\u2014\u2009including ventilation systems, powered air purifying respirators and other equipment\u2009\u2014\u2009would exceed the total annual revenues of many mom-and-pop fabrication shops. That means OSHA is legally prohibited from creating regulations that would effectively protect workers against\u00a0silicosis.<\/p>\n

To Metzger, no regulation would be enough. \u200b\u201c<\/span>It\u2019s an inherently defective product,\u201d he says. \u200b\u201c<\/span>It cannot be made safe. There\u2019s a\u00a0whole slew of other products that can be used and look nice and function well as kitchen and bathroom countertops but [that] don\u2019t kill the workers who make\u00a0them.\u201d<\/p>\n

The furniture retailer IKEA has already removed engineered stone from its U.S. and Australian\u00a0stores.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In December 2025<\/span>, the Western Occupational &<\/span>\u00a0Environmental Medical Association\u2009\u2014\u2009a regional nonprofit representing occupational health physicians and experts\u2009\u2014\u2009filed a\u00a0petition to the Cal\/\u200bOSHA Standards Board to prohibit fabrication of engineered stone with more than 1<\/span>% crystalline silica. The letter states, in part, the \u200b\u201c<\/span>evidence is now clear that engineered stone containing crystalline silica is too toxic to fabricate and install safely, and education and enforcement alone will not be sufficient to curtail the escalating occupational health emergency caused by this\u00a0product.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hearings on the petition are\u00a0ongoing.<\/p>\n

Where regulators and industry fail to protect workers, Metzger says successful litigation may offer hope for\u00a0change.<\/p>\n

The strategy has worked in the past. Up until the late 2000<\/span>s, an artificial butter flavoring called diacetyl was commonly used in microwave popcorn. Many factory workers exposed to the flavoring developed a\u00a0lung disease, nicknamed \u200b\u201c<\/span>popcorn lung.\u201d In separate lawsuits, workers sued the manufacturers and were awarded verdicts totaling tens of millions of dollars. While the U.S. government never banned diacetyl, the mounting publicity and lawsuits caused enough concern among consumers, and potentially insurance agencies, that manufacturers stopped using the\u00a0chemical.<\/p>\n

Metzger believes that will be the solution to the silicosis epidemic as\u00a0well.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In August 2024<\/span>, Metzger and Nevin\u2019s first silicosis case, representing a\u00a034<\/span>-year-old stoneworker, reached a\u00a0verdict: The jury awarded their client $52<\/span>.4<\/span>\u00a0million.<\/p>\n

While Nevin says he can\u2019t estimate how long it will take to get verdicts in the hundreds of cases he and Metzger are working on\u2009\u2014\u2009manufacturers \u200b\u201c<\/span>do everything they can to slow the lawsuit down,\u201d he explains\u2009\u2014\u2009they expect to file more in the coming years. Metzger sees half a\u00a0dozen new potential clients every\u00a0week.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, manufacturers have been urging House lawmakers in D.C. to pass a\u00a0bill that would ban such lawsuits against\u00a0them.<\/p>\n

At a\u00a0January hearing, Rebecca Shult, the chief legal officer for Minnesota-based manufacturer Cambria, claimed that \u200b\u201c<\/span>bad actor\u201d fabrication shops were to blame for workers\u2019 injuries, not the \u200b\u201c<\/span>dozens of innocent stone slab manufacturers\u201d being\u00a0sued.<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>Cambria has no control over these third-party businesses and their dangerous conditions,\u201d Shult argued. \u200b\u201c<\/span>We don\u2019t own them and we don\u2019t operate\u00a0them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cambria declined to respond to questions from In These Times<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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FIGHTING FATE<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n

When he spoke to me from Los Angeles in February 2024<\/span>, Hernandez used the word \u200b\u201c<\/span>passion\u201d four times to describe how he felt about stonework. Seeing a\u00a0blueprint translate to real life, watching a\u00a0house become a\u00a0home for someone else\u2009\u2014\u2009these were the precious moments that gave his work\u00a0meaning.<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>I never saw myself doing something else,\u201d he told\u00a0me.<\/p>\n

He dreamed of starting his own fabrication shop, saving to buy whatever tools he could: a\u00a0pack of drills, heavy duty rails, grinding pads, air compressors,\u00a0blades.<\/p>\n

But his diagnosis forced him to sell that future. After learning he had silicosis, Hernandez had to quit his job and sell his tools to pay the bills. Both his immigration status and his illness made it nearly impossible for him to find new\u00a0work.<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>There\u2019s a\u00a0lot of work to be found, but there\u2019s not a\u00a0lot of work that I\u00a0can do now,\u201d he said. \u200b\u201c<\/span>I felt like all aspirations and dreams just kind of crumbled.\u201d At the time of his diagnosis, two of his brothers were still working in engineered stone shops. They wanted to leave, but couldn\u2019t afford to. Earlier this year, one of those brothers was diagnosed with silicosis\u00a0too.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

As Hernandez\u2019s lawsuit awaited consideration in 2024<\/span>, Hernandez worked hard to follow his doctor\u2019s orders\u2009\u2014\u2009but the days only got\u00a0harder.<\/p>\n

He could no longer use stairs. Showers suffocated him. Putting on his pants in the morning left him\u00a0gasping.<\/p>\n

By November 2024<\/span>, doctors told him he wouldn\u2019t make it to Christmas without a\u00a0lung transplant. He had reached a\u00a0point where the simple act of eating made him faint, and he relied on a\u00a0machine for\u00a0oxygen.<\/p>\n

At the same time, he was running out of savings and had to start selling all he had held dear, including his prized collection of Pokemon cards. He told himself that, if he died, those belongings would mean\u00a0nothing.<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>There were no longer emotions,\u201d he says. \u200b\u201c<\/span>It was just the motivation to get that\u00a0transplant.\u201d<\/p>\n

In early December 2024<\/span>, doctors found a\u00a0match, and Hernandez underwent an 11<\/span>-hour double-lung\u00a0transplant.<\/p>\n

A year later, in 2025<\/span>, the first defendants in his case began settling. By this past February, just weeks into the trial, the last of the 24<\/span> manufacturers agreed to settle for confidential\u00a0amounts.<\/p>\n

That same week, the annual Pokemon Go event Hernandez had attended two years earlier was happening again. He wanted to join his friends, but he didn\u2019t have the strength to walk around the stadium. He also couldn\u2019t risk being around big crowds, now that he was on lifelong immunosuppressants, related to the\u00a0transplant.<\/p>\n

These days, Hernandez is focused on rebuilding his health and \u200b\u201c<\/span>trying to get the word out\u201d on behalf of the hundreds of others\u00a0affected.<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>I\u2019m still struggling,\u201d he says. \u200b\u201c<\/span>But it\u2019s the struggle that\u2019s keeping me\u00a0alive.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

This piece was published in collaboration with the Investigative Reporting Lab at Yale.<\/em><\/p>

Read more Ramirez: \u201cThe call for accountability must not go unanswered. We need an independent prosecutor.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The engineered stone industry is worth nearly $30 billion. But the workers at its core are falling sick and dying from an illness called silicosis. 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