#countertops — Public Fediverse posts

Good, thorough story in the Minneapolis paper this morning—the Le Sueur, Minnesota, local angle on silicosis and manufactured countertops.

Sounds complicated! Government, industry, business, epidemiology. Lots to untangle. I'm sticking with Formica.

"Cambria has become a major Minnesota manufacturer over the last 25 years. The company, whose CEO is prominent Minnesota businessman Marty Davis, generates over $500 million in annual sales, and it employs more than 1,000 people in Minnesota alone.

"Davis’ family, which once owned a large dairy business and Sun Country Airlines, opened its Le Sueur stone factory in 2001. There, pulverized quartz is mixed with resins and pigments and formed into slabs that are shipped across the country."

Cambria caught in fallout from lung disease outbreak sickening California workers
By Mike Hughlett and Christopher Vondracek
The Minnesota Star Tribune
https://www.startribune.com/cambria-countertop-makers-lawsuits-silicosis/601850585?utm_source=gift

#OccupationalHealth #silicosis #countertops #Minnesota #LocalAngle

"...The once-active father of four now awaits a double lung transplant. He can no longer support his family or walk a few steps without pausing to catch his breath. Two stonecutter friends died after working with the man-made material, also known as artificial stone or quartz. Three others are on a waitlist for lung transplants, he said...."

#silicosis #kitchen #countertops #remodeling

LATimes: California workers who cut countertops are dying of an incurable disease... "Instead of cropping up in people in their 60s or 70s after decades of exposure, it is now afflicting men in their 20s, 30s or 40s" #disease #countertops #kitchens #silicosis https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-09-24/silicosis-countertop-workers-engineered-stone