With concerns rising that workers who manufacture and install artificial stone kitchen worktops are at high risk of early-onset fatal lung disease, it is vital employers take steps to prevent and control exposure to respirable crystalline silica found in engineered stone materials.
By Tim Turney, Casella on 23 September 2025
A manufacturer of popular stone kitchen worktops has been fined £60,000 after HSE inspectors found evidence of shocking failures to control dust exposure in the Slough workshop.
By Belinda Liversedge on 06 June 2025
Engineered stone dust contains up to 95 per cent silica, and younger workers are dying in its wake from a disease known as accelerated silicosis. Are we going fast enough to address the problem?
By Belinda Liversedge on 26 May 2025
A stonemasonry firm has received a fine of almost £20,000 for failing to protect workers from silica dust, as the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) issued new advice for stone worktop installers amid continued calls for engineered stone to be banned over its links to silicosis.
By Kerry Reals on 10 January 2025
Although the UK has a framework for managing asbestos in buildings, a proposed new Asbestos Information Certificate rating dutyholder compliance with the relevant legal duties would place greater emphasis on ensuring building owners are adequately reducing the risk to occupants and tradespeople.
By Mick Dawson, ATaC on 05 September 2024
The UK has the worst record on mesothelioma deaths (a cancer solely attributed to past asbestos exposure) in the world, primarily because the UK imported more asbestos per capita than any other country.
By Charles Pickles, Airtight on Asbestos on 05 September 2024
There are growing concerns about the heightened risk of asbestos exposure in schools and hospitals, but the UK is falling behind Europe in tackling the problem of asbestos in non-domestic buildings.
By Mesothelioma UK and University of Sheffield on 05 September 2024
The sudden and alarming appearance of silicosis cases among engineered stone workers in the UK, against the backdrop of a ban in Australia and in some US States, has suddenly brought the question of how to regulate for health protection in the workplace to the fore.
By Kevin Bampton, BOHS on 04 September 2024
Asbestos was widely used in construction throughout the 20th Century, before finally being banned in 2000 – 50 years after the causal link with lung disease was made.
By Wayne Bates, NASUWT on 04 September 2024
Clinicians at the Royal Brompton hospital in London have warned about the dangers of silica exposure in a recent study published in Thorax. They are currently treating the first identified cases of silicosis caused by working with engineered stone in the UK and have called for a ban on artificial stone to ward off the potential for an increase in silicosis cases.
By Jim Shannon MP on 04 September 2024
