MEDICS have called for urgent action to protect workers who cut artificial stone amid growing fears of another “asbestos-type health catastrophe.”
The government has been urged to consider banning the popular kitchen worktop material after a scientific paper documented a steep rise in an incurable lung condition linked to its manufacture.
Kitchen worktops made from artificial stone are cheaper than natural stone, such as granite or marble, but contain significantly more silica, which is released into the air when the material is cut.
Stonemasons could be breathing in high concentrations of the dust, which could lead to them developing a potentially fatal lung condition called silicosis.
The first British case of silicosis linked to the cutting of artificial stone, which is made from crushed rocks bound together with resins and pigments, was identified last year.
Experts have documented the first eight cases, all men with an average age of 34, in the country in a new paper.
Some had worked cutting artificial stone for just four years before they were diagnosed with silicosis and one of the eight patients has since died. The material is already banned in Australia.
Lead author Dr Jo Feary, a consultant in occupational lung diseases at the Royal Brompton Hospital, said: “What’s really striking is it is affecting young people, in their twenties and thirties, and there’s no treatment for it.
“If they didn’t do their job, they wouldn’t have a disease, and it should be preventable. So we need urgent action.”
Adding that she expects “many more” cases in the future, Ms Feary said “a ban is one option, but there are other options as well.”
Hazards Campaign chairwoman Janet Newsham accused the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) of putting workers at risk due to complacency on reducing on silica.
The all-parliamentary group for respiratory health has called for a reduction in the work exposure limits to silica so “we shouldn’t have to wait until thousands are suffering from this life impacting deadly disease before the UK takes preventative action,” she added.
“Without urgent action we are in danger of sleepwalking into another asbestos-type health catastrophe.”
The HSE said: “We continue to work with industry to raise awareness of managing the risks of exposure to respirable crystalline silica and we are considering options for future interventions to ensure workers are protected.”
