They’re everywhere. Engineered stone kitchen countertops look good and cost less. But there’s a catch, says Hazards editor Rory O’Neill. The workers making them are being struck at frightening speed by lung-destroying silicosis. In parliament, the UK government insisted “nobody” has been harmed. But down the road, hospital lung specialists are telling a different story.

Over a century after the government first acknowledged it was an occupational disease, the UK is now far behind best practice on silicosis recognition and prevention, with evidence both exposure standards and systems for identifying cases may be dangerously lax.

A January 2023 report from the All Party Parliamentary Group for Respiratory Health urged the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) to look at “the data and technology needed to allow the UK to reduce the WEL [workplace exposure limit] for work with silica to 0.05mg/m3.”

It was a belated recognition from MPs that the UK’s 0.1mg/m3 standard may not be sufficiently protective. HSE admits there will be six times more silicosis cases if it sticks at this level, but has told Hazards repeatedly it has no intention of lowering it. Australia and the US, by contrast, have both completed multi-year consultations and introduced the more protective standard of 0.05mg/m3. In three years, Australia intends to follow global best practice and shift to 0.025mg/m3.