Culture is the air we breathe all around us

Posted on June 18, 2025

Is a $25bn global industry employing hundreds of thousands of people creating unnecessary risk to health? I was mulling this over recently after reading about a stone kitchen worktop manufacturer in Berkshire being fined £60,000 for repeatedly failing to protect workers from hazardous dust exposure.

According to the report, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) visited the company nine times over six years, finding little improvement despite previous warnings, even at one stage being told by employees that “no-one is in charge of health and safety“.

Inspectors found the company’s workshop floor covered in respirable crystalline silica (RCS) dust, which can cause silicosis, lung cancer, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Deadly dust diseases

Silica is a natural substance found in rocks, sand and clay and in itself isn’t a health risk. Yet when silica-containing materials are processed – cut, ground, polished – the dust created is toxic and respirable, meaning small enough to be breathed deep into the lungs, with devastating, incurable consequences.

Silicosis is also a disease that’s existed at least since Roman times, but it usually takes decades to develop, emerging in older age – known as ‘long latency’.

Engineered stone (ES) has a high percentage of crystalline silica – up to 95 per cent. The more exposure the more rapidly can disease develop. Here’s the thing: a shiny new kitchen or bathroom benchtop resembling marble or granite, but at a fraction of the cost, has fuelled ES popularity worldwide.

Accelerated silicosis is a relatively new phenomenon globally in which workers are dying much younger. According to a 2024 study led by the Department of Occupational Lung Disease at the Royal Brompton Hospital, they are seeing silicosis patients with an average age of 34.

HSE describes silica dust as the second-biggest risk to construction workers after asbestos.

Indeed a TV piece by the Syndney Morning Herald and The Age in 2023 asked if silicosis is the new asbestosis? The average age of Australian tradespeople affected is 39. Australian legislators acted and in July 2024 the use, supply and manufacture of ES was banned.

Think COSHH

The vast majority of construction workers that I speak to when asked what substances are hazardous to health and which are covered by Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH) regulations, mention things that come in a tube or a tin which have sticker on with COSHH information and manufacturer safety data sheets. But COSHH also covers hazardous substances created by a process, in this case, dust.

When we think of the stone industry, it’s almost exactly the same as when the pyramids were built and therefore the mentality of some can be a little outdated. And perhaps because silicosis and related diseases have invariably had long latency, there hasn’t been the focus that there should have been. Now perhaps that is changing.

The standards we need to impose as a civilisation are that these people have a right to live long, healthy lives. The hierarchy of control measures through a risk assessment demand that the first thing that we do from a Health and Safety viewpoint is ask: “Can we avoid it?” It appears that’s how Australia approached it.

But if we as a society decide that we like our ES kitchen worktops, we have to apply control measures during their manufacture. Protecting workers from hazardous dust exposure is crucial for preventing respiratory diseases and other health risks.

So, after risk assessment and monitoring to measure dust levels and identify high-risk areas, we look at the engineering controls and that means using effective local exhaust ventilation (LEV) systems to capture dust at source and installing dust suppression systems, such as water sprays or vacuum extraction fitted to tools, as well as ensuring proper storage and handling of dusty materials to minimise airborne particles.

Next comes training and awareness, ie: improving the competencies of the worker, so they can understand the dangers of dust exposure and work safely. To my mind the Dust Light Test should be mandatory training to show what’s in the air and what could be inhaled and it brilliantly demonstrates LEV effectiveness.

Then PPE. At Courtley we have been face fit testing for years and one of its purposes and where it provides its ‘bang for the buck’ is when the worker removes the mask and smells the substance that they have been protected from. It’s a ‘light bulb moment’ because they often think the mask wasn’t doing anything. It’s the same with a dust lamp – if you show what the LEV is doing, it’s more likely to be used.

Culture and society

It’s about culture – seeing the way to better health in later years. If tobacco were discovered today, it would be illegal tomorrow, yet there are thousands of people smoking even though as a society we know how bad it is. Clearly more has to be done about ES and accelerated silicosis. The number and age of people acquiring a lung disease from it is too alarming not to. Not in this day and age. It’s wrong. It’s uncivilised.

If you would like Courtley’s expertise in COSHH assessments, provide training or face fit testing, or in any other areas of health and safety, then please contact us today on 0151 545 0497.