As more and more countertop cutters in California are suffering from an incurable and fatal lung disease, lawmakers are looking to limit which businesses can legally do such work.
Health officials have linked the rise in silicosis to the growing popularity of engineered stone, a man-made product that can contain much higher silica content than natural slabs. The disease is caused by inhaling tiny crystalline silica that scars the lungs, leaving sick workers dependent on oxygen tanks and lung transplants to survive. More than a dozen countertop workers have died in California, some as young as middle age.
In the San Fernando Valley, outreach workers found immigrant workers cutting man-made materials in dusty, unprotected shops. When Cal/OSHA took a closer look at the industry in 2019 and 2020, it found that 72% of stores conducting air sampling were in violation of silica regulations. Recent estimates suggest that as many as 200 of the nearly 5,000 such workers across the state may die from the disease.
Despite the risks associated with cutting and grinding materials, “access to materials containing silica is uncontrolled in California,” said Jim Hieb, CEO of the Natural Stone Institute, an industry group. “This means anyone can purchase materials and allow any contractor to fabricate them” — cutting and polishing boards for countertop installation — “without regulatory controls.”
That could change if lawmakers pass AB 3043.
Under the bill, no business can legally engage in stone “processing” work in California without such a state license. To get one, stores need to demonstrate they comply with state requirements for workplace safety and ensure employees are trained on protective measures. The bill would also ban suppliers from supplying boards to unlicensed cutters.
Additionally, AB 3043 would prohibit such shops from cutting boards without using “wet” compaction of dust. Emergency rules adopted by state regulators in December already require such systems when performing hazardous work, but Rep. Luz Rivas, D-North Hollywood, argued banning “dry cutting” in state law would strengthen that rule. rule.
Rivas, who sponsored the bill, said working in the industry should not be a “death sentence.”
The state bill also would require Cal-OSHA to begin publicly reporting on its website any orders prohibiting activities at stone-cutting shops in the previous year, and would require reporting to lawmakers which areas of the state had the most violations and how. .
The legislation was sponsored by the state Building Trades Council and supported by the American Lung Association. California and Western Association of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.
Jeremy Smith said the hope is that as many stone cutting businesses come forward and get licenses, Cal/OSHA “maybe be able to reveal the parts of the industry that they know about that have not yet been registered” and “target Their Resources” Chief of Staff, National Construction Industry Council.
Business groups were outraged by the wage requirement in an earlier version of the bill, which was later removed from the proposal. The Silica Safety Alliance, an industry group that believes silicosis can be prevented through the use of safety measures, said it now supports the bill. The same goes for the Natural Stone Institute.
“Careful enforcement of permit program registration, coupled with rigorous monitoring and enforcement, is critical to the program’s success,” Hibb said in an email.
Enforcement has been a serious problem in the face of Cal/OSHA’s high vacancy rate. Even knowing how many stone shops there are is a challenge for state regulators: At a UCLA meeting in May, California Department of Public Health officials estimated there were more than 900 stone shops across the state. In another speech that morning, Hibb said his team expected the number to be about 3,000.
Whenever a state bill touches Cal/OSHA, “that’s on everyone’s mind. … Do they have enough funding to actually accomplish what we want this bill to accomplish?” Smith said.
Funding could be an issue: Under the bill, any stone-cutting shop seeking a license would be required to pay fees — a total of $650 for an initial application and $450 for renewals — that would go into a state fund used to enforce the rules. AB 3043 would also require stone cutting businesses to cover the cost of training workers.
But an analysis by the Assembly Appropriations Committee concluded that the fees and possible penalties under the bill are unlikely to cover the cost of the regulatory structure mandated by AB 3043, and that other funding from the state may be needed as it responds to a widening deficit. Rivas said she and other lawmakers are still evaluating the costs of supporting strict enforcement.
Those who questioned the bill included Assemblywoman Diane Dixon (R-Newport Beach), who voted against AB 3043 in committee. Dickerson said in a statement that one of her concerns is that “the worker training requirements in the bill largely duplicate existing training requirements under Cal/OSHA regulations.” Rivas responded to This argument raises objections.
Dr. Robert Brinker, former president of the Western Association for Occupational and Environmental Medicine, believes the state needs to impose a fee on every square foot of slate sold that “generates enough money each year to actually fund the necessary training, education, registration, tracking, enforcement, etc. “
Even if AB 3043 passes, illegal stores will still try to ignore the rules, he said. “If there was enough energy to control them… that would help a lot,” Brink said.
Rivas said she would try to ban artificial stones – a decision that would soon come into effect in Australia – if she thought such a bill had a chance of passing. In Australia, the workplace safety regulator concluded that “the only way to ensure that the next generation of Australian workers do not contract silicosis from such work is to ban its use altogether”.
Rivas said that without such a ban, “we’re trying to create a way to keep workers safe.”
