California Board Advances Quartz Countertop Fabrication Ban

California workplace safety regulators approved an amended petition to ban fabricating engineered stone, kicking off the process of potentially becoming the first state to prohibit a material commonly used for kitchen countertops.

By a 3-0 vote Thursday, the California’s Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board agreed to direct Cal/OSHA to initiate rulemaking to prohibit the fabrication and installation of artificial stone slabs with more than 1% crystalline silica. The vote also directs the state agency to create an advisory committee that would consider how the state should go about the possible implementation of such a standard simultaneously.

The board, the standards-setting agency for the state’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health, concluded engineered stone with greater than 1% silica is inherently dangerous, highly toxic, and harmful to workers.

Board members determined trying to regulate the cutting and installations of these materials wouldn’t eliminate the risks associated with engineered stone and recommended that Cal/OSHA convene an advisory committee to discuss a ban.

The new panels will outline several possible roadmaps to phase out the use of quartz slabs with more than 1% crystalline silica to allow the industry to work through its current inventory while sourcing alternative products.

California has identified at least 562 cases of confirmed silicosis associated with engineered stone, with at least 31 deaths and 58 lung transplants.

A ban would have broad ramifications for companies that make engineered stone, namely Caesarstone USA, Cosentino Group, and Cambria Co. LLC, as California is a major market for these products.

David Michaels, the longest serving US OSHA administrator in the agency’s history, now a professor at the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health, said these manufacturers will likely need to switch to silica-free materials as other safety regulators follow suit.

“This is an important first step in stopping the engineered stone silicosis epidemic that has killed dozens of workers and sickened hundreds of others,” said Michaels.