I could die of silicosis after cutting stone for kitchen revamps - UK must ban it

A stonemason who contracted a deadly lung disease after cutting a material popular in kitchen makeovers has called for it to be banned in the UK amid a new wave of global cases in young workers.

Malik Al-Khalil, 31, is among the first UK-based kitchen countertop workers diagnosed with silicosis after inhaling toxic dust from grinding engineered stone.

Speaking from his hospital bed, Mr Al-Khalil, a Syrian refugee who has lived in the UK for 10 years, is the first in the group to go public with his illness, and to call for the new Labour government to issue a ban on the high-silica material.

Unable to walk more than a few steps before his legs buckle and requiring oxygen to help his breathing, he has been receiving full-time care for months in hospital, with doctors telling him he could die from the condition.

He claims a friend, from his hometown in Syria, died earlier this year in the UK after also contracting silicosis from cutting worktops made of engineered stone like quartz, which has exploded in popularity among homeowners having kitchen refurbishments in recent years.

Mr Al-Khalil, who developed silicosis after five years of working with the stone, said he knows a growing number of engineered stone workers with the incurable illness, including a friend who has to use a mobility scooter as he can no longer walk.

Silicosis is an occupational disease that can destroy the lungs of workers who inhale particles of dust known as repairable crystalline silica (RCS) when cutting stone or rock without adequate safety measures in place.

The disease can cause scarring and inflammation of the lungs, severe breathing problems and increase the risk of lung infections and can ultimately be fatal if the lungs stop working properly or serious complications develop.

It has ravaged workers in sectors from mining to construction for decades, with an average of 12 UK deaths per year over the 10 years to 2021, although the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) says available sources are likely to substantially underestimate case numbers.

This month, Australia became the first country in the world to ban engineered stone after hundreds of stonemasons contracted silicosis.

California has become an epicentre for the crippling lung disease in recent years, with engineered stone fabricators in their 30s and 40s dying or requiring lung transplants.

In the UK, the previous Conservative Government ruled out a ban despite calls for the material to be outlawed including from within the House of Lords.

The first UK cases linked to engineered stone were identified last year, with around 10 workers understood to have been diagnosed, many of them migrants working in poor conditions, but health officials believe numbers may be higher with workers misdiagnosed.

Dr Johanna Feary, a respiratory consultant in occupational lung disease at Royal Brompton Hospital where Mr Al-Khalil is being treated, believes the current number of UK cases of engineered stone-induced silicosis is “the tip of the iceberg” and called for urgent action to stop “the same disaster” unfolding here as in Australia.

Mr Al-Khalil told i he is speaking out to warn other workers cutting engineered stone of the potential dangers, and urged Sir Keir Starmer’s new Government to ban it.

“This silicosis, when it starts in your body, it will not stop,” he told i.

“I want to let all the people working in this work know what’s happening from this material.

“I don’t like to see or to hear that someone is in a hospital like my situation because it’s not easy.”

Mr Al-Khalil fled the war in his home country, arriving in the UK in 2014, before working in small factories in London cutting slabs of engineered stone like quartz.

Since falling ill, his weight has plunged from 11 and a half stone to just seven and a half stone with doctors saying he is currently too weak to undergo a lung transplant.

After his diagnosis, he discovered that two friends who worked in the same industry had also been told they had silicosis last year, and has since learned of others.

“Last year, we were three. [The man] who died, me and the other guy. From four months [ago] until now every two weeks or every one month, you have a new one,” he said.

“I now know nine people that have the same silicosis. I think seven people are from my city. All silicosis, all working in factories, all working as stonemasons, all the people working the same job.”

In recent years though, a new wave of silicosis has hit young stonemasons across the world as the popularity of quartz kitchen countertops soars.

Compared to some natural stones, man-made engineered stone like quartz can contain very high levels of silica, up to 95 per cent, a substance that can cause silicosis through prolonged exposure to RCS.

Dry cutting without water-suppression and specialist equipment or protection places workers most at risk of exposure, with fears that workers not subject to factory working practices and compliance while cutting without the appropriate protective equipment are most at threat.

In July, Australia brought in the world’s first ban on engineered stone after 579 stonemasons were found to have contracted silicosis from 2015 to 2022, with men in their 30s and 40s becoming critically ill.

Compared with workers exposed to silica from other sources, engineered stone workers’ silicosis was associated with a shorter duration of exposure to silica, faster disease progression and higher mortality, a report by policy body Safe Work Australia found.

California has also seen a surge in cases, with at least 168 workers diagnosed – many of them Latino migrants, with an average age of 46. Thirteen have died and 17 have required lung transplants.

Operating in a two-man workshop, Mr Al-Khalil described being caked from head to foot in dust after cutting and polishing worktops imported from China, which were to be sold on to homeowners for kitchen revamps.

“You would be white, all your body would be white,” he said.

There were no safety measures such as ‘wet’ cutting to suppress dust or specialist PPE to protect the workers, who were just provided with standard masks, he said.

A machine to extract dust did not work properly with the firm he worked for failing to clean it regularly and health and safety inspections not carried out, he said.

Mr Al-Khalil said he worked in and is aware of factories that had no safety measure to protect workers, and that they were not warned about the risks as they used hand tools to cut holes for hobs and polish worktop edges.

“Trust me, if I knew anything about this, or if I saw someone before me that was sick or in the hospital, or had silicosis of course, I would stop,” he said.

After developing a bad cough last August, he went to the hospital, but was told he only had flu-like symptoms.

But when he then experienced vomiting, pain in his joints and breathlessness he returned to hospital where he was told he had tuberculosis.

As his condition worsened, unable to eat or walk and with his weight plummeting, further tests in September revealed he had silicosis.

“[The doctor] said ‘you are in a bad situation, and your lungs are not working very well. But we don’t know in the future what this means, after one month or two months, where you will be’,” he said.

“’Some people, after two three months, the lungs start working. But some people not.

“If you looked at me, you would say, ‘This is a guy who will die’, because I was in a bad situation. I couldn’t talk, I couldn’t do anything.”

After several weeks in St Mary’s Hospital in west London, he was transferred to an intensive care unit at the Royal Brompton Hospital, where he is being treated by Dr Feary.

“Sadly, I have seen a number of similar patients with silicosis from cutting artificial stone in recent months and I am sure this is just the tip of the iceberg,” she said.

“Urgent action needs to be taken to increase awareness of the disease amongst health care professionals and the general public and steps taken to prevent the same disaster unfolding in the UK as has occurred in Australia and elsewhere.”

When his condition improved after a procedure to clear his lungs, Mr Al-Khalil was allowed to return home in January.

But smoking and cooking from flatmates led to him becoming sick again and in April he returned to the Brompton, where he has remained since, receiving further surgery after suffering collapsed lungs.

He also has problems with his heart, with doctors telling him in the worst case scenario he could die.

Acknowledging his fears for the future, Mr Al-Khalil said: “What I can do is take the medicine, listen to the doctor, keep myself safe. But it’s not in my hands or the doctor’s… if I die tomorrow or next month or next year.”

If his health improves, he hopes to leave hospital, move to a coastal town and continue taking driving lessons.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) says it carries out targeted research on measures to protect workers, including methods to adequately measure RCS, works with industry to raise awareness and investigates concerns about inadequate risk management.

While some bodies believe that the risks associated with engineered stone can be managed with adequate safety controls in place, Mr Al-Khalil called for the Government to “open their eyes” to the problem and ban it outright.

“Of course [it should be banned] because the silicosis is coming from this material. But this job will be for the Government. The Government should start to do something about this,” he said.

“[I want] to help other people. Some people in the UK don’t know anything about this material or about silicosis.

“It was the same when I was working, I didn’t have an idea about this… I would like all the people to know about my story and about silicosis.”

The Government were approached for comment.