Quartz kitchen worktop trend driving rise in deadly stonemason disease

Ryan Fenton loved working as a stonemason. From the age of 19, he plied his craft for nearly three decades, making kitchen tops, fireplaces and bathroom installations.

“It was a skill set that I enjoyed building up, I loved the work,” said the 49-year-old from Ipswich. “And I loved teaching the youngsters as they came into the trade. Now I just feel as if life’s rug has been pulled from under my feet.”

Fenton’s trade has left him with silicosis, an irreversible disease that is often fatal. The fine dust he has inhaled over the years has caused scarring, hardening and stiffening deep within his lungs.

Modern quartz worktops are the culprit. Made of crushed stone, resins and metals reformulated into smooth, hard slabs, these kitchen surfaces have surged in popularity in recent years. Cheaper than marble or granite — which have to be carved in great blocks out of mountainsides — and far easier to cut into shape, quartz comes in a wide range of colours and finishes.

But doctors are now warning with increasing urgency that the fashion for this artificial stone in kitchens poses a real danger to the workers who cut the slabs. Some experts are calling for a ban, following the lead of Australia, where it was outlawed last year.

The first case of silicosis linked to artificial stone was reported in the UK in autumn 2023. Less than a year later, in August 2024, an influential paper was published in the Thorax medical journal, listing eight cases identified in Britain.

But the numbers kept rising. As of last week, doctors had seen 28 cases. Two of those affected have already died, with many more feared to come.

“I’m really keen that people in the UK understand the problem and the risks,” said Dr Johanna Feary, consultant in occupational lung disease at the Royal Brompton Hospital in London. She has seen all the UK’s cases linked to quartz and is the lead author of the Thorax paper. “These are young men — some in their twenties and thirties — dying of a preventable lung disease acquired by making a kitchen worktop.”

Silicosis is caused by inhaling what scientists call respirable crystalline silica, or RCS. “We are talking about small particles of silica, freshly fractured,” Feary said.

Once quartz is in the kitchen — prepared, polished and installed — it does not pose a danger. But for the stonemasons who cut it, silica dust is a severe hazard.

According to the Health and Safety Executive, silica “is the biggest risk to construction workers after asbestos”. Artificial stone such as quartz is a particular problem because it has a silica content as high as 95 per cent, compared with granite, which has 30 per cent silica, and marble, which has 3 per cent.

When Fenton started as an apprentice, he worked mainly on natural stone. But in recent years his work has switched almost exclusively to engineered quartz. “There’s a difference,” he said. “It’s the taste in the air — you can smell it. People might say dust is dust, but this is finer, it’s more powdery. You’d see it hanging in the air. It would be in your hair, your boots, your overalls. It would get everywhere.”

Feary said: “[The particles] get inside the lungs and they cause fibrosis.” It can take 10 to 15 years to develop, although she has seen patients develop severe cases of the disease after as little as three years of working with artificial stone. Silicosis develops far quicker than diseases related to asbestos, which can take several decades to appear. “When you first develop it, you have no symptoms, but as it progresses, you have increasing breathlessness, sometimes a cough, sometimes chest pain.”

Quite by chance, Fenton — who has two daughters, aged 22 and 21 — had his condition caught early. Two years ago he suffered a transient ischemic attack — a mini-stroke — caused by undiagnosed type 2 diabetes. When doctors carried out a scan to assess the damage, they spotted unrelated scarring on his lungs. They were initially puzzled, but a biopsy was sent to the Brompton, where Feary’s team diagnosed silicosis.

They advised him to seek alternative employment to reduce his exposure. He immediately quit his job and found work as an adult support worker. “I feel fine at the moment,” said Fenton, who sings and plays guitar in two cover bands. “Maybe it’s because I’m exercising my lungs.”

Studies suggest that if exposure is stopped, there is a 50-50 chance whether the disease will progress or remain stable. “It’s just a waiting game now,” Fenton said. “I’m trying to get on with life, but it’s always in the back of my mind. Some nights I’m in bed and I wake up with a tight chest and I think, ‘Oh God, I can’t breathe’. But then it goes.”

If his condition does progress, there is little doctors can do. “We don’t have any good treatment,” Feary said. A lung transplant is an option for some patients, while others are put on antifibrotics to relieve symptoms, but there is no cure for the disease.

Last year Britain had its first two deaths from silicosis linked to artificial stone. Wessam al Jundi, 28, died in April and Marek Marzec, 48, died in November.

Lydia Brown, the senior coroner for west London, who will hear the inquest on Jundi, has written a prevention of death report — an unusual step before the case has even begun.

“During the course of the investigation, my inquiries revealed matters giving rise to concern,” she said in a letter to the government and the Health and Safety Executive, demanding a “timetable for action”. She added: “In my opinion urgent action should be taken to prevent future deaths and I believe you and/or your organisation have the power to take such action.”

Last month the Health and Safety Executive published new guidance for companies making artificial stone worktops to remind them of the mandatory steps to control exposure.

Australia’s ban on engineered stone came into force in July after hundreds of stonemasons were diagnosed with silicosis. The TUC has called for the UK to follow suit and doctors have said such a ban should be at least considered.

Ewan Tant, a solicitor at Leigh Day, is representing more than ten workers who developed silicosis after working on artificial stone. He said many companies operated without sufficient health and safety measures in place. “You want, at the very least, a fitting facemask, dust-extraction machines and [to cut the stone] with water to damp down the dust. You want protective equipment in place for all this type of work, but because of the specific dangers of engineered stone you want the health and safety precautions to be even tighter.”

Feary agreed that workshops could reduce the risk to their staff but stressed that it was not clear whether — even if the proper safeguards were followed — the risk would ever fall to zero. “I don’t think we’ve got any data from the UK to say whether it can be [made] safely or not, whether your risk is minimal if you use [safety equipment] appropriately,” she said.

Fenton is now earning £600 less each month than he was as a mason. He worked for several companies during his career and is taking legal action against one of them. But he insisted he did not bear a grudge. “I’m not angry with them. There’s no ill-feeling. But I want any stonemason out there working engineered stone to be careful. Wear your protective equipment. And employers — make sure you’ve given out the right stuff, you’ve got the right extraction equipment and know the hazards.”