In California, Latino immigrants are dying from silicosis. Silicosis is an incurable disease that has been known for centuries to be dangerous to workers exposed to airborne crystalline silica particles.
In California, silicosis is a problem for immigrant workers who make engineered quartz kitchen countertops. Quartz contains very high levels of silica, over 90%. Cutting, breaking, crushing, drilling, grinding, or abrasive blasting quartz to form countertops creates fine silica dust that workers breathe into their lungs.
On December 14, 2023, the California Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board announced that approximately 4,040 workers in California stone processing plants are exposed to silica dust. It is estimated that 500 to 850 of these people will develop silicosis and 90 to 160 will die from silicosis.
This is unacceptable.
Workers can be protected through a combination of engineering controls, good work practices, personal protective equipment, and other measures to reduce exposure to silica particles. Although temporary emergency rules were recently put in place, the California government must take responsibility for the health of these workers.
Background information
During the Great Depression, hundreds of workers digging tunnels in West Virginia died from silicosis.
The tunnel project attracted thousands of men looking for work. “For them, going to West Virginia was like going to heaven, a new land, a new promised land. And when they got here, they knew they were in a hellish place. ,” says pastor and amateur Matthew Watts. Historian.
The International Labor Organization (ILO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) have launched a program to eliminate silicosis worldwide by 2030, implementing a number of measures to protect workers from exposure to dangerous amounts of silica dust. He asked for countermeasures.
However, the threat never went away and new types of silica exposures emerged.
The risk of silicosis from artificial stone was first identified in Israel in 2012, and the first case of silicosis associated with artificial stone in the United States was confirmed in Texas in 2015. Since then, California has become the epicenter of the disease.
Many of California's engineered stone workers are undocumented immigrants who do not speak English, making them especially vulnerable to having to work in hazardous conditions. Some unscrupulous employers use immigration threats to create an atmosphere of coercion and exploitation in which undocumented workers are discouraged from complaining about working conditions.
There are three types of silicosis.
acute: Symptoms such as a persistent cough, phlegm, and difficulty breathing can occur within weeks to up to two years after exposure to large amounts of silica.
Chronic: Symptoms may not appear until decades after exposure to small or moderate amounts of silica. Symptoms are mild at first but gradually worsen.
acceleration: Symptoms occur 5 to 10 years after significant exposure to silica. Symptoms worsen quickly.
Workers exposed to silica also have an increased risk of tuberculosis, lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, kidney disease, and autoimmune diseases. Although silicosis is incurable because the damage caused by inhaling crystalline silica dust cannot be reversed, treatments exist that can improve lung function, quality of life, and longevity. The expected outcome for patients with silicosis depends on the degree of exposure to silica dust.
Prevention of silicosis
According to Brayton Purcell, a law firm with expertise in silicosis prevention, current CAL-OSHA and federal OSHA standards require wet-cutting methods, exhaust ventilation and dust masks, half-face canister masks and full-face masks during manufacturing. Canister masks are required. Natural stone. However, these standards are based on the low content of silica particles with sizes in the low micron range in natural stones, and on the large amount of ultrafine or nano-sized silica particles in quartz engineered stones. It does not mean. Workers in engineered stone manufacturing plants are exposed to an average of 227 ug/m3. This is 4.5 times the silica exposure limit allowed by OSHA. And even the necessary measures will not reduce silica exposure below that level.
The only way to completely prevent silicosis is to ban positive air pressure breathing machines or the manufacture and sale of artificial stones.
If California is unwilling or unable to require employers to provide adequate protections, consider making it illegal to manufacture countertops that expose workers to dangerous levels of silica dust. Should. This is what Australia did. In December 2023, the Australian Government banned the use, supply and manufacture of all synthetic marble benchtops, panels and slabs.
However, such a ban would not help workers who already suffer from silicosis. How will they support themselves and their families and pay their medical bills if they become disabled and can no longer work?
As with the West Virginia miners during the Great Depression, California's undocumented immigrant workers whose lungs were destroyed by exposure to silica dust thought they had come to the promised land, only to find themselves in hell. I fell into the hole.
nolan rapaportHe served for three years on the House Judiciary Committee as an expert on immigration law in the executive branch. He then served as immigration attorney for the Immigration, Border Protection, and Claims Subcommittee for four years. Before he served on the Judiciary Committee, he spent 20 years writing decisions for the Board of Immigration Appeals.
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