![]() Their median age was 45 years old, with an average work history of 15 years. Twenty of the patients had advanced disease at diagnosis, and have 10 died. Researchers from UCSF and UCLA collaborated with the UCSF California Labor Laboratory and the California Department of Public Health to identify 52 California engineered-stone workers diagnosed with silicosis, 51 of whom were Latino immigrants. case of silicosis linked to engineered stone was identified in Texas in 2015, California has become an epicenter of the disease. The risk of silicosis from artificial stone was first identified in Israel in 2012. "Our study demonstrates severe morbidity and mortality among a particularly vulnerable group of young underinsured and likely undocumented Latino immigrant workers." "Increasing case counts of silicosis among stone fabricators over the last 10 years and accelerated progression of disease transforms the paradigm of an all-but-previously-forgotten disease in the U.S.," said Jane Fazio, MD, a pulmonary specialist at Olive View-UCLA Medical Center and co-author of the study. silicosis case due to engineered stone was reported in 2015, according to the study published in the July 24, 2023, edition of JAMA Internal Medicine. ![]() This growing occupational hazard has been sickening and claiming the lives of workers, predominantly young Latino men, at an alarming rate since the first U.S. The disease has plagued miners and cutters of natural stone for centuries, but the engineered stone is far more dangerous due to its high concentration of silica, a natural product in sandstone, and the harmful polymer resins and dyes that are added to the engineered product. ![]() When the synthetic quartz is cut, ground and polished, lung-damaging dust is released into the air, leading to a disease called silicosis.
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