Суды присяжных присудили производителям искусственного камня сотни миллионов долларов за смертельные случаи силикоза

The popularity of artificial stone, or quartz, countertops over the past two decades has led to hundreds of cases of a devastating lung disease, prompting huge jury verdicts and soaring insurance rates in the stone-making industry. On August 20, a jury awarded $7.1 million to the family of a stone fabricator who died at 46 from silicosis. Similar cases resulted in a $47 million verdict on August 3, a $17.45 million verdict in May, and a $52.4 million verdict in 2024. Many other stone makers and distributors have settled out of court. In the August 3 case, the jury found stone maker Daltile liable for negligence, design defects and failure to warn of the hazards of cutting its stone. Stone manufacturers and distributors were found 30% liable for the death of stonecutter Wilmer Ruben Martinez Paredes, who died of silicosis at age 41, while his employers were found 70% liable in the case before the Los Angeles Superior Court. Daltile, a Mohawk subsidiary based in Dallas, did not respond to a request for comment. Stone makers “flooded the market with this toxic product, telling everybody that it was natural and not having any warning labels,” said James Nevin, the Los Angeles-based litigator at Brayton Purcell behind all the large verdicts. “That’s why we see the verdicts.” Stone makers blame unsafe stonecutting. “The (U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration) regulations are sufficient. What is insufficient is enforcement of the regulations,” said Micah Aberson, a spokesman for Cambria, a major stone maker based in La Sueur, Minnesota. Mr. Aberson said Cambria had itself fabricated about 700,000 stone slabs over nearly 25 years and “never had a single reported case of silicosis.” Silicosis is an incurable, often-fatal lung condition caused by inhaling silica dust. It has long plagued miners and sand blasters, but it has resurged as artificial stone countertops have gained traction as a durable, low-maintenance alternative to granite and other natural stone fittings. Most victims of silicosis today work at fabricators, which obtain stone slabs from manufacturers or distributors and custom cut them for kitchens. The fabrication industry is dominated by small shops employing immigrant men. Following OSHA guidelines to stop workers from inhaling dust requires “multimillion-dollar equipment” that is out of reach for such shops, Mr. Nevin said. “Simply saying that OSHA needs to do a better job will not stop this epidemic. As long as the industry sells to small fabrication shops, workers will be overexposed,” former OSHA assistant secretary David Michaels testified in a January Congressional hearing about the silicosis lawsuits. Mr. Michaels is currently a professor of environmental health at George Washington University in Washington. Silicosis begins with shortness of breath and coughing. In acute cases, people cannot climb a flight of stairs and require a constant oxygen supply or double-lung transplants. Silicosis from artificial stone may be more severe because of the combined effects of inhaling the burned silica, resins and metals found in the stone, according to a June report from the American Thoracic Society, the nation’s preeminent society of lung doctors. The society urged banning the stone. “This isn’t traditional coal miner, sandblaster silicosis,” said Mr. Nevin. “This is an insane off-the-chart accelerated silicosis that’s causing workers in their twenties to need lung transplants and kidney transplants.” Of 592 diagnosed patients in California, 65 needed a lung transplant and 31 had died, according to a study by the state’s health agency released in August. About 100,000 stone fabricators in the United States are at risk of the disease, according to a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Courts are generally requiring liability insurers to pay defense costs in silicosis claims, said Jeff Kiburtz, a Los Angeles-based insurance recovery partner at Pillsbury who has represented stone makers. Some policies have silica exclusions, but judges have found that injuries could have arisen from other substances, including the metals and resins, Mr. Kiburtz said. Judges are also finding that pollution exclusions do not apply. In a typical example, in July, a California federal judge quashed an appeal of a finding that silica and total pollution exclusions do not bar coverage for more than 170 silica bodily injury suits filed against stone maker Cambria Enterprises. The case, Regent Insurance Company vs. Cambria Enterprises, is pending in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. It’s not yet clear how many silicosis settlements are being funded with insurance, and there’s no public information that an insurer has satisfied any of the largest U.S. judgments, Mr. Kiburtz added. “U.S. indemnity remains sharply contested,” he said. The huge verdicts have prompted insurers to retreat from the stone industry, said Alush Garzon, Tampa-based national managing director of manufacturing at A.J. Gallagher. “It’s very difficult to get coverage right now because of the losses in the industry,” Mr. Garzon said. “If coverage is available, it’s almost cost-prohibitive.” Insurers have dropped coverage or boosted premiums even for companies that don’t sell products containing silica or don’t have fabrication operations, Jim Hieb, chief executive of the Natural Stone Institute, an industry association, said in the congressional hearing. Mr. Nevin said his firm has more than 900 fabricator clients nationwide, many from shops with industry safety certifications. He hopes the verdicts convince the industry to replace engineered stone with safer recycled glass. Australia banned engineered stone in 2024. In May, California’s OSHA board directed agency staff to draft an emergency rule banning engineered stone fabrication and installation.