Articles Tagged with ''silica''

American Floor Coverings will host the NSI Silica and Slab Safety course on Wednesday, June 3, 2026.

The California Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board voted unanimously May 21 to begin rulemaking that could prohibit the fabrication and installation of engineered stone containing more than 1% crystalline silica, though the action falls short of an immediate ban and faces a months-long process before any prohibition takes effect.

California's Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board is scheduled to vote May 21 on a petition that would ban the fabrication and installation of engineered stone slabs containing more than 1 percent crystalline silica, a decision that would mark the first such prohibition in the United States.

A major investigative report published on March 12, 2026 by KFF Health News and CBS News has drawn renewed national attention to the silicosis epidemic among engineered stone countertop fabrication workers and to a federal bill that would shield slab manufacturers from worker lawsuits.

The International Surface Fabricators Association (ISFA) presented a shop licensing and certification program to California workplace safety regulators, positioning the industry-led proposal as a practical alternative to a physician-backed petition calling for an outright ban on engineered stone fabrication in the state.

The peer-reviewed study published in September 2025 in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine is based on air respirator exposure data voluntarily collected from NSI member companies and represents the largest known dataset of countertop fabrication exposure data to date.

California's Silicosis Training, Outreach and Prevention (STOP) Act, the most aggressive state-level regulation targeting silica exposure in the stone countertop fabrication industry, took full effect on January 1, 2026, after Governor Gavin Newsom signed it into law on October 13, 2025.

The Ogun State government has sealed African Refractory and Allied Products Limited, an Indian-operated quartz processing company, following allegations that workers contracted silicosis on the job and that multiple employees have died from the disease.

In recent years, a wave of litigation has emerged nationwide alleging that manufacturers, distributors, and sellers of certain stone slab products bear liability for occupational silicosis suffered by downstream fabricators.

Law firm Brayton Purcell LLP announced Feb. 18 that it has secured nearly $200 million in verdicts and settlements for countertop fabrication workers diagnosed with accelerated silicosis linked to crystalline silica artificial stone.