보다 최근의 미국 의학 간행물, 보건 당국의 경고 및 뉴스 기사가 나오기 오래 전에 엔지니어드 스톤이 근로자들 사이에서 규폐증의 전염병을 일으킨다는 지식은 이러한 제품 제조업체에게 새로운 정보가 아닙니다.
Silicosis caused by exposure to silica dust in general has been a known disease since ancient times when slaves in Egypt who cut the stones for building the pyramids around 2500 B.C. died of silicosis. Similarly, workers who built temples in Greece around 550 B.C. died of silicosis. Miners in the 1500s were well documented as dying from silicosis. In the 1700s, silicosis was included in medical treatises. Case studies were written on Vermont granite workers in 1917. In the 1930s in West Virgina, 2000 out of 2,900 tunnel workers died of silicosis in the Hawk’s Nest Tunnel Disaster. In the 1930s, the Department of Labor launched anti-silicosis campaigns. Silicosis has killed more workers than any other occupational disease.
Engineered stone was invented in the 1970s in Italy. In 1987, Caesarstone began manufacturing engineered stone in Israel. In 1990, Cosentino began manufacturing engineered stone in Spain. Cambria begin manufacturing engineered stone in the U.S. in 2000. Many other manufacturers followed.
일반적인 만성 규폐증에 대한 오랜 지식 외에도 엔지니어드 스톤의 제조업체 및 공급업체는 수십 년 동안 가공되지 않은 상용 제품이 사용 지침에 따라 의도된 대로 사용될 때 치명적인 가속 및 급성 규폐증을 유발한다는 사실을 알고 있었습니다!
The first engineered stone epidemic was reported in Israel regarding workers using Caesarstone, with the first case published in 1997 by researchers at the National Lung Transplant Center. In 2012, in Chest, Dr. Mordechai Kramer and others in Artificial Stone Silicosis: Disease Resurgence Among Artificial Stone Workers reported on 25 workers studied from 1997 to 2010 with silicosis from engineered stone.
The second engineered stone epidemic started in Spain in 2010 with the publication of 3 young engineered stone workers with sever silicosis from using Cosentino stone by Dr. Cristina Martinez, et. al – International Journal of Spanish Respiratory Society of Pulmonology and Thoracic Surgery – Silicosis, Una Enfermedad con Presente Activo. This was quickly followed by Dr. Silvia Pascual, et. al. in 2011 in Arch Bronconeumol – Prevalence of Silicosis in a Marble Factory After Exposure to Quartz Conglomerates publishing a study on 11 Cosentino stone workers with severe silicosis in Spain.
A third engineered stone epidemic was reported in Italy in 2012 by Dr. Dusca Bartoli, et. al in the Italian Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene – Silicosis in Employees in the Processing of Kitchen, Bar, and Shop Countertops Made From Quartz Resin Composite publishing that 7 out of only 29 engineered stone fabrication workers from a single shop were suffering from severe silicosis.
The precursor to the current epidemic in the U.S. was reported in 2015 by Dr. Gary Freidman and Dr. Robert Harrison, et. al – CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) – Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report – Silicosis in a Countertop Fabricator – Texas, 2014 publishing on a 37-year-old engineered stone worker in Texas who developed acute silicosis with progressive massive fibrosis after just 10 years of working with engineered stone.
In 2019, 18 more cases of acute and accelerated silicosis in engineered stone workers in California, Colorado, Texas, and Washington were published in the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) – Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report– Severe Silicosis in Engineered Stone Fabrication Workers – California, Colorado, Texas, and Washington, 2017-2019.
2021년에서 2022년 사이에 거의 1000건의 심각한 규폐증 사례가 호주에서 엔지니어 석재 작업자 사이에서 보고되었습니다. 호주 보건 당국은 100,000명 이상의 호주 공학 석재 작업자가 규폐증으로 사망하고 10,000명이 폐암으로 사망할 것으로 예측합니다.
만성 규폐증의 알려진 원인에 대한 수세기에 걸친 역사와 급성 및 가속화된 규폐증의 원인인 공학석의 25년 역사에도 불구하고 제조업체와 공급업체는 이 치명적인 제품을 계속해서 만들고 판매했습니다. 오늘날에도 여전히 그렇습니다. 이탈리아, 스페인, 이스라엘, 중국, 호주 및 미국에서 수천 건의 사례가 보고되었습니다. 이것은 단순한 전염병이 아닙니다. 그것은 전염병입니다!
무료 사건 평가 – 변호사와의 무료 인터뷰
엔지니어드 스톤 조리대 제작자, 절단기, 연마기 또는 설치자로 일해본 적이 있습니까? 그렇다면, 규폐증이나 폐암 진단을 받은 경우 재정적 보상을 받을 수 있습니다. 서류미비 이민자이더라도 보상을 받을 자격이 있을 수 있습니다. 귀하의 사건을 검토하고 청구가 있는지 판단하는 데 도움을 줄 법률 회사가 필요합니다. 그들은 귀하의 권리를 위해 싸우고 귀하가 합당한 보상을 받을 수 있도록 도와줄 것입니다. Brayton Purcell LLP에 (855)335-8606으로 전화하거나 지금 온라인으로 연락하여 무료 상담을 받으세요.
For an overview of engineered stone, why it is dangerous, and how it causes silicosis and other diseases, click here
To learn about Safety and Medical resources, and how to reduce or eliminate exposure to silica, click here
To learn about how silicosis from engineered stone is diagnosed and to find treating doctors who specialize in engineered stone silicosis, click here
For an updated listing of current news, important regulatory hearings and medical presentations, and medical journal articles about the epidemic of engineered stone silicosis, click here
To learn about the types of monetary damages available to silicosis victims, statute of limitations (deadlines to file a lawsuit), or the major defendant manufacturers of engineered stone, click here
Video Credit: SHES at Georgia Tech
