Engineered stone — the quartz slab sold under names like Caesarstone, Cambria, and Silestone — can contain as much as 90% crystalline silica, compared with under 45% for granite and under 10% for marble. Every time a fabricator cuts, grinds, edges, or polishes one of those slabs, it releases respirable silica dust fine enough to lodge deep in the lungs. Without wet-cutting, proper ventilation, and fitted respirators, the workers doing that job — countertop fabricators and installers, stone cutters, and polishers, along with construction, demolition, and sandblasting crews — breathe it in shift after shift, for years.
Inhaled silica causes silicosis, an incurable disease that permanently scars lung tissue and keeps progressing even after exposure stops. It also raises the risk of lung cancer, tuberculosis, COPD, kidney disease, and autoimmune conditions, and advanced cases can require a lung transplant or end in respiratory failure. One Australian study found at least 12% of workers who cut stone countertops had silicosis. Lawsuits allege the slab manufacturers and distributors knew of the hazard and failed to warn workers or provide adequate dust-control guidance. Cases are proceeding individually in state courts rather than a single MDL: a Los Angeles jury awarded one stone worker $52.4 million in 2024, and another fabricator with more than 20 years of exposure reached settlements totaling $26 million.
If you cut, ground, polished, or installed engineered or natural stone and were later diagnosed with silicosis, you may be able to bring a claim.
