Workers who make quartz countertops are developing an irreversible lung disease with no effective treatments beyond a full lung transplant after breathing in plumes of toxic, lung-scarring dust, a new study shows.
The findings, published Monday (July 24) in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine, highlight the cases of 52 countertop workers in California who were diagnosed with silicosis, a potentially fatal lung disease caused by inhaling silica dust, between 2019 and 2022. Eleven men needed a lung transplant following diagnosis, but only three received a transplant while seven were formally denied.
