California moves to ban common kitchen item after incurable disease rates skyrocket

California is looking to ban the creation or installation of man-made quartz amid cases of a fatal lung disease that increasingly affects workers who carve the material to make kitchen countertops.

California’s Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board is expected to pass the emergency regulation for man-made quartz in October, indicating a growing concern over the preferred alternative to granite and marble.

The ban would be for manufactured stone that contains more than 1 percent of crystalline silica.

The state is expected to review the regulation before it becomes law.

Crystalline silica, which is highly concentrated in man-made quartz, is spread into the air as dust when quartz is cut.

This can, in turn, affect the lungs, which react with an aggressive immune response. Scar tissue forms, leading to the killing of the lung.

Once patients begin suffering from silicosis, they often need a single or double lung transplant.

The number of Californians suffering from the disease has surged in recent years, jumping from 31 cases in 2019 to a staggering 631 as of mid-August, one study found.

Nearly all of the victims have been men, with about half of them in Los Angeles County, the report said. Their median age is 52.

One of those victims is Enrique Gonzalez, a San Fernando Valley stone worker who has been unable to work for the past two years after developing silicosis from years of working in granite and stone manufacturing.

Gonzalez’s family previously told the California Post his disease left the family struggling to cover medical expenses and everyday costs.

His daughter, Edith Gonzalez, 30, said that her father’s health started improving only after the lung transplant he received this summer.

“He has recovered really well from the lung transplant. His body took it really well. He is showing signs of improvement, like right away,” Gonzalez said. “Before he got his lung transplant, he got really, really bad. Like his condition was very bad, where he got intubated because he couldn’t breathe, even just a little bit.”

Fortunately, Gonzalez said, her father was already on the transplant list by the time his condition became critical. The family had initially been warned that finding donor lungs could take years.

“So thankfully, when his condition got really bad, he had that lung transplant,” she said.

Before the procedure, even walking short distances had become extremely difficult. Gonzalez said her father used a cane and often needed a wheelchair to get from the car to medical appointments or the emergency room. Even while using supplemental oxygen, he would frequently become short of breath.

Now, his life looks dramatically different.

“Right after he got his lung transplant, obviously yes he had some help with walking and support, but now he doesn’t need a cane. He doesn’t need a wheelchair,” Gonzalez said. “He’s able to do his morning and evening walks. He’s like a new person.”

His daughter described him as a quiet, family-oriented man who spent much of his life working and was the household’s primary breadwinner.

“He’s always just been at home, gone to work, and back home,” she said.

The transplant marks a major turnaround for Gonzalez, but his recovery is far from over. His daughter said he remains under significant restrictions and spends much of his time attending medical appointments, undergoing physical therapy and following up with doctors.

“He can’t really be outside. He can’t go to a lot of places,” she said. “So right now it’s all been about his recovery of just staying home and going to the doctors.”

With Gonzalez unable to work for the past two years, the family has relied in part on donations through GoFundMe to help cover expenses.

“It has helped a lot because obviously he was not able to work and it did take a toll on us because he has always been the family provider,” Gonzalez said. “I feel very grateful that he had a second chance at life.”

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