“Nobody uses water,” one man in a Dodgers cap said in Spanish when Maria Cabrera approached, holding flyers about silicosis, an incurable and suffocating disease that has devastated dozens of workers across the state and killed men who have barely reached middle age.

The disease dates back centuries, but researchers say the booming popularity of countertops made of engineered stone, which has much higher concentrations of silica than many kinds of natural stone, has driven a new epidemic of an accelerated form of the suffocating illness. As the dangerous dust builds up and scars the lungs, the disease can leave workers short of breath, weakened and ultimately suffering from lung failure.

“You can get a transplant,” Cabrera told the man in Spanish, “but it won’t last.”

In California, it has begun to debilitate young workers, largely Latino immigrants who cut and polish slabs of engineered stone. Instead of cropping up in people in their 60s or 70s after decades of exposure, it is now afflicting men in their 20s, 30s or 40s, said Dr. Jane Fazio, a pulmonary critical care physician who became alarmed by cases she saw at Olive View-UCLA Medical Center. Some California patients have died in their 30s.

  • airportline
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    1 year ago

    My boss has emphysema and asthma, but refuses to wear a mask when doing demolition because “it makes it too hard to breath.” I don’t understand this mentality.

    • 【J】【u】【s】【t】【Z】@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I don’t know an outdoor construction worker that doesn’t have some sort of pulmonary disease. Chronic rhinitis at best, mostly COPD, many with also with sleep apnea. And those that smoke on dusty job sites will all die young.