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Capital & Main
Capital & Main
Semantha Raquel Norris

‘My Lungs Had Nothing Left.’ Inside The Epidemic Killing Countertop Stonecutters.

Stone slabs lined up outside a showroom in Los Angeles. Photos by Semantha Raquel Norris.

For more than 15 years, Oscar worked nearly seven days a week in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles, cutting and polishing stone countertops for kitchens and bathrooms. He didn’t know the engineered stone he was fabricating was rapidly killing him.

At the age of 45, Oscar began to have difficulty breathing. He felt extremely tired and weak, unable to lift the stone slabs he once carried with ease.

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