WASHINGTON, D.C. — A contentious debate over worker safety, corporate liability, and the future of the U.S. stone slab industry played out in Congress last week, drawing in Indian-origin business leaders and highlighting issues with global implications for supply chains and labor protections.
Testifying before a House Judiciary subcommittee, former U.S. occupational safety chief David Michaels warned lawmakers that proposed legislation aimed at shielding artificial stone manufacturers and distributors from lawsuits could worsen what he described as a growing silicosis epidemic among countertop fabrication workers.
“Silicosis is a devastating, deadly, and thoroughly preventable disease,” Michaels said, calling artificial stone fabrication “one of the most hazardous of all the industries where workers are exposed to silica dust.”
Michaels told lawmakers that hundreds of workers in the United States have already fallen ill, with dozens dying after exposure to silica dust released during the cutting and polishing of artificial stone used in kitchen countertops. Citing California health data, he said nearly 500 cases have been identified in that state alone, including 27 deaths and dozens of lung transplants.
“Unless something is done to stop exposure, the number of cases, and the number of deaths, will continue to increase,” Michaels said.
He strongly opposed H.R. 5437, the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Stone Slab Products Act, arguing that civil lawsuits are often a key driver in forcing industries to adopt safer materials and practices.
Michaels pointed to Australia, which chose to ban high-silica engineered stone rather than restrict litigation, prompting manufacturers to move to safer alternatives without job losses. “There are safe substitutes that can make equally fashionable countertops,” he said, adding that a transition would result in “no loss of American jobs.”
Offering a sharply different perspective, Gary Talwar, vice president of Natural Stone Resources, an Indian-origin family-owned business based in California, urged Congress to pass the bill. Talwar told lawmakers his parents immigrated legally from India in 1980 and built the company from the ground up, describing it as a reflection of the American Dream.
“Silicosis is a serious and absolutely preventable disease,” Talwar said, but argued that responsibility lies with unsafe fabrication shops rather than distributors like his company, which does not cut, grind, or polish stone. “We do not control whether a shop uses wet cutting, ventilation, or PPE,” he said.
Talwar said distributors are increasingly being named in lawsuits for practices they do not oversee, driving up legal costs for small, often family-run businesses. Some companies, he said, have already spent hundreds of thousands of dollars defending themselves and are being forced to choose between litigation and keeping their businesses running.
“Some are seriously considering shutting their doors,” Talwar told the panel.
Jim Hieb, chief executive of the Natural Stone Institute, echoed those concerns, saying the trade group supports worker safety but opposes what it sees as misdirected litigation. “Selling stone slabs does not cause silicosis,” Hieb said. “It is the disregard for safety compliance when cutting and fabricating stone slabs that creates the risk.”
Rebecca Shult, chief legal officer of Cambria, a Minnesota-based quartz manufacturer, said her company supports the legislation as a way to protect American manufacturing jobs and domestic producers.
Silicosis is caused by inhaling fine silica particles and has long been associated with mining, construction, and stone cutting. The current debate centers on whether Congress should limit civil liability for stone slab sellers or rely on workplace enforcement and market-driven shifts toward safer materials to prevent further illness and deaths among workers. (Source: IANS)
