Californias Potential Quartz Ban Pushes Contractors and Retailers to Alternatives

When Raphael Metzger, a lawyer in Long Beach, Calif., remodeled his kitchen in 2020, he selected a quartz countertop, tan and white, flecked with gold.He didn’t want anything entirely white or hard to clean.A year later, Mr.

Metzger’s law office took on the case of a man with silicosis, a deadly lung disease, who had worked at a countertop fabrication shop in Los Angeles.It became one of the first lawsuits to claim that quartz kills workers who inhale a toxic dust thrown off when it is cut.“Now I know,” Mr.

Metzger said with a bitter laugh.A quartz countertop poses no risk unless it’s being cut, so removing it could be dangerous.

“I only hope the workers who did it are OK.”Mr.Metzger has filed about 260 cases on behalf of stone workers in California, where public health authorities have identified 668 cases of silicosis tied to quartz cutting.

The state is poised to ban the production and installation of quartz countertops, despite pushback from the industry and questions about the feasibility of enforcing the change.Engineered stone is a growing $30 billion global industry, and quartz is one of its more popular products.But as the dangers of silicosis have become more apparent, the industry has adapted, and so have American consumers.Quartz is often marketed as “natural stone.” In fact, quartz countertops are made by mixing pulverized quartz — an abundant natural rock made of silicon and oxygen — with resins and pigments and pressing it at high heat into slabs.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

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