592 California Workers Have Silicosis From Cutting Quartz Countertops, and Congress May Block Their Lawsuits

A state health surveillance study has confirmed 592 cases of silicosis, an incurable lung disease, among California workers who cut, ground and polished engineered-stone “quartz” countertops between January 2019 and June 2026. Thirty-one of those workers have died, and 65 needed lung transplants, according to the same study, published by the California Department of Public Health through NEJM Evidence in partnership with CIDRAP in August 2026. The count has roughly doubled since an earlier tally of about 260 cases in March 2025.

While that number was landing, two separate fights over what to do about it were already under way. California regulators voted in May 2026 to start writing a rule that could ban the material outright, and a Republican-sponsored bill in Congress would give manufacturers a legal shield that critics say could reach many of those workers’ already-filed lawsuits — a reading the bill’s backers dispute.

Key facts

592 confirmed silicosis cases among California engineered-stone workers, January 2019 to June 2026
31 workers have died; 65 needed lung transplants
Study published by the California Department of Public Health through NEJM Evidence, with CIDRAP, in August 2026
Case count roughly doubled from about 260 cases in March 2025
Roughly half of confirmed cases traced to Los Angeles County
California’s Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board voted May 21, 2026 to direct Cal/OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) to start emergency rulemaking toward a ban on engineered stone above 1% crystalline silica
H.R. 5437 would shield manufacturers from liability; it passed the House Judiciary Committee 16-7 on June 3, 2026
Roughly 500 lawsuits are already pending against manufacturers including Cambria, Caesarstone and Cosentino

Timeline

2019 — Index case identified: a worker diagnosed with silicosis at 32 later died of respiratory failure at 38; screening of his employer’s other 43 workers found five more cases.
December 2023 — Cal/OSHA begins requiring wet-cutting methods and respiratory protection in fabrication shops.
2024 — Australia bans engineered stone nationwide, becoming the first country to do so.
August 2024 — An earlier jury award of about $52.4 million against artificial-stone countertop makers is reported.
February 2025 — California’s wet-cutting and respirator rule is made permanent.
March 2025 — An earlier tally counts about 260 silicosis cases in California.
January 2026 — Cambria’s chief legal officer tells a House subcommittee “the problem is the process, not the product.”
April 2026 — A Colorado jury awards $17.45 million in the state’s first artificial-stone silicosis lawsuit.
May 21, 2026 — California’s Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board votes unanimously to begin emergency rulemaking toward a ban.
June 3, 2026 — H.R. 5437 passes the House Judiciary Committee, 16-7.
August 2026 — The California Department of Public Health study confirming 592 cases, 31 deaths and 65 transplants is published.

Why engineered stone is different from granite

Countertops sold as “quartz” aren’t cut from solid quartz the way granite or marble slabs are. They’re manufactured: crushed natural quartz is bound together with polyester resin and pigment, producing a slab that typically runs more than 90% crystalline silica — far higher than the silica content of natural granite or marble. Cutting, grinding, drilling and polishing that material releases fine silica dust that workers breathe in. Once trapped in the lungs, the dust scars tissue permanently. Silicosis has no treatment that reverses that damage; doctors can only offer supportive care, such as supplemental oxygen, or, in the worst cases, a lung transplant.

The California Department of Industrial Relations reports that workers diagnosed with silicosis in this industry are overwhelmingly young Latino men, many of them immigrants working in small fabrication shops with limited oversight; roughly half of the state’s confirmed cases have been traced to Los Angeles County. Screening of the index worker’s 43 colleagues in 2019 found five more cases, and one of those workers also died.

The documented risk is occupational, not in your home

If you have a quartz countertop in your kitchen, the documented risk found so far is occupational: every confirmed case involves a worker who cut, ground or polished the material during fabrication, and researchers have not identified cases tied to owning a finished, installed countertop. The homeowner question hasn’t been the direct focus of the surveillance research reviewed here — the documented hazard comes from disturbing the material during fabrication, not from owning a finished, sealed countertop.

California is not banning the material yet

On May 21, 2026, California’s Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board voted unanimously to direct Cal/OSHA to begin emergency rulemaking toward prohibiting the fabrication and installation of engineered stone containing more than 1% crystalline silica. Because engineered stone typically runs above 90% crystalline silica, as described above, a 1% limit would in effect cover nearly all of the material as it is currently manufactured, not just a narrow high-silica category. That vote does not, by itself, ban anything. It starts a process, and each step has to happen before the next one can:

Cal/OSHA prepares an emergency finding to support the rulemaking.
It convenes advisory committees, including a scientific committee, to weigh whether a ban is workable.
It drafts an actual proposed standard.
The board votes on that standard, and only if it approves could any prohibition take effect. As of this reporting, no draft standard had been finalized.

It is not California’s first move on the hazard. Since December 2023, made permanent in February 2025, Cal/OSHA has required fabrication shops to use wet-cutting methods and respiratory protection — a lower bar than an outright ban. If the new rule is eventually adopted, California would become the first U.S. state to prohibit high-silica engineered stone. Australia banned the material nationwide in 2024, becoming the first country to do so.

A federal bill would shield manufacturers from liability

At the same time regulators are moving to restrict the material, a bill in Congress is moving to protect the companies that make it. H.R. 5437, introduced by Rep. Tom McClintock (R-CA) and co-sponsored by Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ), would give stone-slab manufacturers and sellers a liability shield similar to the ones federal law already gives firearms and vaccine makers. Critics of the bill, and several outlets that have reviewed the bill’s text, say the shield would reach the roughly 500 lawsuits sickened workers have already filed, not just claims filed in the future. The bill is written around harm caused by a fabricator’s later cutting or grinding of the stone. Exactly how, or whether, that provision applies to cases already in the courts has not been independently confirmed against the bill’s full text in this reporting. The bill passed the House Judiciary Committee on a 16-7 vote on June 3, 2026, and as of mid-August 2026 it is still waiting on a full House floor vote, with no date set.

Critics of the bill, including Rep. Jamie Raskin and the AFL-CIO, say it would strip those workers of their main legal recourse. McClintock has defended it as a matter of civil-justice fairness, aimed at stopping what he calls frivolous suits. Cambria’s chief legal officer, Rebecca Shult, told a House subcommittee in January 2026 that “the problem is the process, not the product,” arguing that non-compliant fabrication shops, not the material itself, bear responsibility for how workers were exposed.

Workers have already won at least one case in court without any such shield in place. In April 2026, a Colorado jury awarded $17.45 million to a fabrication worker in that state’s first artificial-stone silicosis lawsuit, finding manufacturer Cambria Co. and Hyundai USA LLC partly liable for misrepresentation and negligence. It followed an earlier jury award of about $52.4 million against artificial-stone countertop makers, reported in August 2024.

What comes next

Two clocks are running at once. Cal/OSHA has to finish drafting its proposed silica standard and bring it back to the board for a final vote before any ban on engineered stone could take effect in California. H.R. 5437 needs a floor vote in the full House before it could become law, and as of this reporting none had been scheduled. Until either happens, fabrication shops keep working under the 2023 wet-cutting and respirator rules, and the roughly 500 pending lawsuits keep moving through the courts.