California public health researchers have now confirmed 592 cases of silicosis among workers who cut and finish engineered stone countertops, including 31 deaths and 65 patients who required lung transplants, according to the report in NEJM Evidence published through the Public Health Alerts collaboration between that journal and the University of Minnesota's Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy.
Silicosis is incurable. Scar tissue in the lungs does not reverse, and there is no treatment that restores lost function. The disease has historically taken decades of exposure to develop in miners and sandblasters, which is what makes the pattern in these workers so unusual.
