早在最近的美国医学出版物、卫生当局警报和新闻报道出现之前，人造石导致工人中硅肺病流行的知识对于这些产品的制造商来说并不是什么新鲜事。
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.
除了长期以来对慢性硅肺病的普遍了解之外，人造石的制造商和供应商几十年来都知道，制造商按照其使用说明按预期使用其未完成的商业产品会导致致命的加速和急性硅肺病！
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.
2021 年至 2022 年间，澳大利亚人造石工人中报告了近 1000 例严重矽肺病例。澳大利亚卫生当局预测，超过 100,000 名澳大利亚人造石工人将死于矽肺病，另有 10,000 人死于肺癌。
尽管慢性硅肺病的已知病因已有数百年的历史，并且人造石作为急性和加速硅肺病病因的历史已有二十五年，但制造商和供应商仍在继续生产和销售这种致命产品；直到今天仍然如此。意大利、西班牙、以色列、中国、澳大利亚和美国已报告数千例病例。这不仅仅是一种流行病，而是一种流行病。这是一场流行病！
免费案件评估 – 免费与律师面谈
您是否曾担任过工程石台面的制造商、切割商、抛光商或安装商？如果是这样，如果您被诊断患有矽肺或肺癌，您可能有权获得经济补偿。即使您是无证移民，您仍然可能有资格获得赔偿。您需要一家律师事务所来审查您的案件并帮助您确定是否有索赔。他们将为您争取权利并帮助您获得应有的赔偿。请致电 Brayton Purcell LLP (855)335-8606 或立即在线联系他们以获得免费咨询。
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
视频来源：佐治亚理工学院的 SHES
