Episode 11: Testimony from Cal OSHA and HR 5437
James Nevin: Hello everyone. Welcome back to another episode of From Dust to Verdict. I'm your host, James Nevin, a partner at the law firm of Brayton Purcell LLP. This podcast is dedicated to the epidemic of accelerated silicosis in artificial stone countertop fabrication workers. In each episode, we explore important topics and issues about this occupational health epidemic caused by uniquely toxic artificial stone slabs, as well as the associated litigation.
Today in episode 11, we recap important testimony from the January 15th, 2026, Cal OSHA Standards Board hearing, and the January 14th, 2026, federal HR 5437 foreign slab manufacturer bailout hearing. First, let's review the January 15th, 2026, Cal OSHA Standards Board hearing. Notably, after two meetings, WOEMA strangely has still not been allowed by the board to make a full presentation on its own petition, yet the board allowed ISFA to make a full counter presentation. In episode 10 of the podcast, I detailed the background of ISFA and the other foreign artificial stone manufacturer lobbyists. So, check that out if you missed it.
Not surprisingly ISFA's presentation at the hearing, as well as that of the other artificial stone slab lobbyists, was untethered to actual facts and contrary to all published peer-reviewed medical evidence. Thankfully, I and a few others were allowed to briefly speak and mention the actual medical science evidence.
Let's watch my testimony where I was limited to two minutes, rather than the 15 minutes allocated to ISFA.
Joe Alioto: Thank you very much. Next speaker please.
James Nevin: Good morning. I'm James Nevin from the law firm of Brayton Purcell LLP. We represent approximately 500 California actual fabrication workers. These workers all support WOEMA's Petition and oppose ISFA's petition. ISFA claims to be a fabrication association. It has zero fabrication worker members according to its own website.
ISFA has 157 stone slab supplier company owners. It has 112 members who are actually slab manufacturers, distributors, and tool and equipment manufacturers. 99% of the crystalline silica toxic artificial stone slabs are made by foreign manufacturers in 17 countries such as Iran and China, and 1% is made in Minnesota by Cambria.
They're dumped here in California. Adopting WOEMA's petition and rejecting ISFA's position will not actually lead to any job loss. With the exception of Cambria, all the major manufacturers have already changed their ingredients to switch to non-toxic recycled glass amorphous silica in response to the Australian ban.
It's now all they sell in Australia and they sell it here in California. Right alongside their toxic product. The Australian fabricators simply switched to fabricating non-toxic recycled glass slabs. The Australian consumers switched to buying non-toxic slabs.
The various Australian building trades did not lose their jobs. Australian construction did not slow down. There was no slippery slope of job loss whatsoever.
The countertop fabrication industry existed with natural stone for decades. Prior to the introduction of artificial stone, the number of fabrication workers with silicosis anywhere in the world was zero. That all changed when natural stone was replaced by the uniquely toxic artificial stone. There would be no epidemic without it.
The problem is not just the high 95% silica content, but also the nano size and the toxic metals and resins that are added.
The CDPH confirmed that there are now 481 fabrication workers from 688 different California fabrication shops. That's 54% of the fabrication shops. It's not a few bad actors that just need to be licensed, that just need to be enforced.
NIOSH, Australia, 100 published peer reviewed global studies have shown that crystalline silica artificial stone cannot be fabricated safely by human beings. This is not new. This is established science. Human being workers with jobs can safely fabricate recycled glass and natural stone slabs.
Only robots can fabricate artificial stone with crystalline silica. I ask that at the next meeting you'll allow me to make a more complete presentation on behalf of the actual California fabrication workers. Thank you.
Joe Alioto: Thank you very much, Mr. Nevin.
James Nevin: Thankfully, standards board member Dr. Derek Urwin had some questions for me, so I was allowed to speak for a few more minutes.
Derek Urwin: Moving back to the point Dave was making about the workforce. Workers often, I think, don't even realize that they can engage us here at the board, or afraid to do so.
And so maybe it's a question, for Mr. Nevin, if that's okay, in so far as how might we be effective in going about engaging the workforce, and I mean the workforce, right? The people who are attempting to put controls into place. We're seeing how they fail so that we can hear firsthand what works, what doesn't work, et cetera.
And, and I think that type of feedback would be essential to any next step. Next steps, whether ISFA’s proposal, or any further board action.
Joe Alioto: Mr. Nevin? You wanna comment on that?
James Nevin: Yeah. Thank you. We remain willing, able to collaborate with anybody who wants to collaborate with representatives of actual workers.
There are other organizations as well that actually represent the workers, that wanna be engaged. Many of the workers, it's a very incredibly skilled trade. They are artists. But they're also uneducated. Most of them don't have any formal education, so they rely on advocates to speak for them. I think it's important to understand that we're seeing more and more cases from incredibly sophisticated shops.
There are sophisticated shops where a hundred percent of the workers have silicosis. The man from Block Tops, he submitted data to Yale saying his workers don't have silicosis. We represent several of his workers with silicosis. So, the problem is these workers who even are educated, even are licensed, even are sophisticated shops doing everything right. Because they're using artificial stone, they're still getting silicosis, which is why you heard from WOEMA and they said, “Look, two years ago, we didn't realize it was this bad. Now we've looked at the science, we realize this is bad”.
The only solution is to ban it and switch to recycled glass; they can all cut that safely. But we are happy to engage with anyone that wants to engage on that topic. Thank you.
Derek Urwin: Thank you. Just a follow-up question. What do you mean by a sophisticated shop? What types of features would that entail and what would be a not sophisticated shop?
James Nevin: So there are shops with many million dollars of safety equipment that still couldn't – as WOEMA explained when he called in, Dr. Blink, – that still couldn't get the levels below the OSHA action level, which is still not a safe level anyway.
And so, you can spend many millions of dollars and still not get a safe shop, if you're fabricating artificial stone. You can fabricate natural stone with very unsophisticated methods and no one is going to get silicosis. You can fabricate recycled glass slabs with very unsophisticated methods and nobody is gonna get silicosis.
As I said before, the disease rate in the entire world, before artificial stone was introduced, was zero. No documented cases of silicosis among countertop fabrication workers for decades. The only thing that changed is the artificial stone, because of the unique toxicity of the product, as staff keeps saying. There's been over a hundred published peer-reviewed medical articles in the last 10 years focused on why this is a uniquely toxic product. Which is why Australia, who was a few years ahead of us, they did all this already.
They looked at all the licensing, they talked to all the workers, they looked at what preventive methods we can do, and they determined none of this is working. We have to ban the product.
Joe Alioto: I would love to hear of – are there any shops that you're aware of, I would imagine the most sophisticated among the ones that you just listed who have been successful in fabricating natural, I mean artificial stone without injury to the workers?
James Nevin: There are shops that say they have been successful, and I say to those shops, show me your high-resolution CT scans because you can do a four-view chest x-ray or a one-view chest x-ray on a worker all day long and not see anything.
But if you do a high-resolution CT, we're finding that about 80% of these workers have silicosis. And so, we have clients from many, many sophisticated shops. We have a shop in Colorado. It's been perfectly sophisticated from day one, state-of-the-art methods for the entire time they've been fabricating.
And one hundred percent of those workers have silicosis. We have a former shop in Southern California that was incredibly sophisticated, many millions of dollars of safety equipment, and there's at least 10, 15 workers out of that shop that have silicosis.
Joe Alioto: Do you all have a confidentiality order in your case, protective order?
James Nevin: Mostly, no.
Joe Alioto: Are you able to share with the board, evidence that you might have of one of these highly – not one, as many as you can – of these sophisticated shops and the number of folks and the severity of the diseases that have been suffered by the workers there?
James Nevin: Absolutely.
Joe Alioto: Would you mind doing that, please, for us?
James Nevin: We'd be happy to submit that.
Joe Alioto: I would appreciate that. Thank you.
James Nevin: And again, as I mentioned, I'd be happy to speak in full at the next meeting.
James Nevin: Dr. Robert Blink from WOEMA was given two minutes to speak as well.
Joe Alioto: Let’s go to the next speaker then please.
Facilitator: All right. Robert Blink with W-O-E-M-A is our next commenter.
Dr. Robert Blink: Yes, good morning and happy new year to all and also congratulations to Dave Thomas. Dr. Robert Blink. I'm an occupational environmental medicine physician, former president of WOEMA and active with the Legislative Committee of Western Occupational Environmental Medicine Association. We submitted this petition after having worked successfully with Cal OSHA standards board over the past several years, trying to regulate this toxic material to protect the workers who have been grotesquely damaged and killed by fabricating artificial stone slabs.
We considered, so, why did we go back and do this after having agreed to the restrictions that were put in place for the permanent standard, just enacted a year ago? Because we've gotten additional information since that time that the material is much more toxic than we initially believed. And because evaluation of workplaces has shown that even with appropriate protections in place, the exposures are still way too high.
So, we've now calculated that in order to get exposures down to a level that would be an acceptable level of risk, one would have to have a perfect situation with a circular saw underwater with local exhaust ventilation, and the worker would need to be wearing, essentially, a space suit to isolate themselves from the material.
Essentially, it cannot be worked with safely as the gentleman who spoke recently said, “We need robots to do this. Human beings cannot do it.” And I'd like to point out that while we're debating this and trying out other approaches, a death clock is ticking. So according to the proposal that was put forward by ISFA, they would put this in place by April 2027 as 15 months from now. Estimate would be that in that time, an additional 62 workers would develop silicosis, which will debilitate them. Of those 62, approximately 10% will die of the disease quickly, and another three or so will need lung transplants, which might extend their lives another five years.
So, the clock is ticking as we discuss, as we try this and that, why are we protecting this cosmetic material for which there is a particularly appropriate and excellent substitute, which is amorphous silica. Why are we – and natural stone – why are we doing this while we're waiting for people to die?
So, we really urge that this petition be adopted, and we'd like to ask our partners who seem to have, that everyone else who has spoken here, for instance, I think that the is for people seem to be put forth in earnest effort, but they assume that the material can be worked with safely.
Unfortunately, it just cannot. So, let's substitute materials that can be worked with safely. Crystalline silica artificial stone is not that material. It can't be done. Thank you.
Joe Alioto: Thank you, doctor.
James Nevin: Dr. Blink, representing the over 600 occupational medicine doctors from WOEMA and I are essentially saying the same thing. That based on a decade of over 100 published peer reviewed medical studies, extensive analysis by NIOSH, OSHA, CAL OSHA, Safe Work Australia, health authorities in Spain, the CDPH, and so many others, crystalline silica artificial stone cannot be fabricated safely by human beings.
An otherwise identical, safe alternative of recycled glass as well as natural stone already exists such that there would be no job loss, just thousands of lives saved if we ban crystalline silica artificial stone. Notably the Cal OSHA Standards Board's own medical expert staff agrees with us.
Derek Urwin: And then one other thing, just thinking back to Dr. Blink's presentation, you know. He mentioned the use of a space suit, but I think he's probably alluding to the use of like a Level A suit. And I think just for the benefit of everybody that's here, who heard the comment, can either of you just give a breakdown on what a Level A suit is and whether or not that's something that might be, you know, in the cards or necessary?
OSHA staff doctor: I mean, those are both great, great questions, Dr. Urwin, and we can certainly do that. And I think, you know, thinking about a Level A suit and the level of sophistication of this industry, that it gives one pause as to the ability of a shop with five employees to have the capacity and willingness to protect workers at that level, and, you know, the economic feasibility of it.
And I think, underscores the point that the chair, you've been you know, raised around the unique toxicity of the product. And I would just say, you know, one way to think about it is, we really entered this problem, as we've heard today from the public, with the rise, sort of extraordinary rise, in cases and case reporting.
And so, the epidemiology is really leading this with where we're seeing this extraordinary severity of disease, a rate of disease onset that is unprecedented, and the aggressive nature of the silicosis that results, with respect to the need for lung transplant or fatality, that results in a short amount of time. That has led to investigation of the toxicology and an understanding that, oh, in fact, these particles are uniquely toxic, as you've pointed out for the reasons you've highlighted.
And I think we're, in thinking about the fact of, as we're seeing from CDPH, more than half of the shops across the state have generated cases. But we have a real case rate from Australia that has been doing active surveillance. So, we have 20 to 25% of these workers are gonna develop silicosis.
We expect 19% of those cases will likely die of massive pulmonary fibrosis. So I think as Doctor notes, just noted, we have a substantial body of a summation of the literature that we'd be happy to provide to the board – sort of put this question to rest as to the toxicity.
OSHA staff scientist: Yeah. And I think if I may, Dr. Urwin, there are a number of people, not so much Mike and myself since we are exposure scientists, but, and industrial hygienists, but CDPH and our medical unit have done a lot looking at the leading indicators. And a lot of it is more about time between diagnosis and death, like looking at that kind of prognostic indicator.
But there is, like that literature is moving too. And we could definitely talk to CDPH and see if they might be able to come in and give a presentation or the medical unit, whoever would be appropriate. But I just wanted to acknowledge that part of your question, that there are definitely more answers on that as well.
Joe Alioto: I would really like to know the answer to the question of whether or not it can be fabricated safely. Whether or not artificial stone can be safely fabricated. I've heard yes, I've heard no. It sounds to me those that say no, if we, let's just imagine for a moment that we did have in fact a certification program. It sounds to me like if that, if they're right, that those people would simply never get certified. So if you have science to answer that for the fabricators in the room. Mark, manufacturers, everybody else, please any evidence of the ability to safely fabricate artificial stone. Fact please, like science. Alright.
Derek Urwin: One last thing.
Joe Alioto: Yeah. It doesn't have to be the last thing.
Derek Urwin: Just a follow up on why I asked about Level A suits and giving that some context is the point that there exists products, hazardous materials that require the use of things like a Level A suit in order to work with them. And so, to be clear, you know, where the existing PPE standard is, is not the only line that can be drawn, right.
And those hazardous materials that require use of a Level A suit, you don't work with those materials without a Level A suit. And so, then the question is, what's required in order to work safely with these materials, not just can we or can we not? And again, I want to make the point that when you hear a comment like it takes a space suit, a Level A suit, if you haven't seen one, is essentially a space suit that you would use here on Earth. Right. It's fully encapsulated with a self-contained breathing apparatus, etcetera. And that is a type of PPE that's utilized in certain hazardous work environments. So just want to make that point.
Joe Alioto: Yep. Alright. Anyone else? Ms. Crawford? Anything else to add? Alright folks, thank you very much. I want to say thank you to everybody who has traveled near and far to be here to provide their very valuable opinion on this difficult topic.
And I just would love to know what the science is saying about, is there something specific about artificial stone that makes it more inherently more dangerous than natural stone?
OSHA staff scientist 2: Yeah, artificial stone is inherently and intrinsically more toxic and more dangerous than crystalline silica from natural stone.
Joe Alioto: And why is that?
OSHA staff scientist 2: Well, there's many. I mean, it was said that it comes from natural stone, but it's ground into a very fine powder as Bob, Dr. Harrison explained last month. So, it's very fine powder, very small particles in this powder glued together, mixed with pigments, other chemicals, and then that's worked on, so it's a much different product than natural stone.
And the crystalline particles, when it's worked on, you have much more smaller, they're much more spikier, more reactive and go deeper in the lungs, cause more damage in the lungs, plus they're mixed with chemicals that also help it do more damage to the lungs.
So, it's a whole host of factors. Dr. Wilson has gone through many scientific studies showing that crystalline silica from artificial stone is much more dangerous than like, say from concrete or cement, as people have mentioned. It's much more dangerous than that and much more dangerous than natural stone.
Joe Alioto: Alright, great. I appreciate it.
OSHA staff scientist 2: And there's no doubt about that.
Joe Alioto: Yeah, I appreciate that very much
James Nevin: It is concerning that the Cal OSHA staff has now repeatedly told the board that they have assembled and analyzed the published peer-reviewed medical evidence and can provide it to the board. Yet Chairman Alioto keeps, instead, asking the foreign slab manufacturer lobbyists and Cambria to provide it.
This was a big week in the artificial stone silicosis epidemic because on January 14th, 2026, we also had the federal HR 5437 foreign slab manufacturer bailout subcommittee hearing. The testimony from the three foreign artificial stone slab manufacturer lobbyists, as well as a few statements from some MAGA Republican members were, not surprisingly, untethered to the facts, despite the extensive global published peer-reviewed evidence that crystalline silica artificial stone slabs must be banned.
Instead, they want to ban the civil lawsuits from young US fabrication workers with fatal silicosis against the foreign slab manufacturers. However, Dr. David Michaels, who was the longest serving assistant secretary for OSHA, gave compelling testimony opposing the HR 5437 manufacturer bailout.
Mr. Issa: We welcome everyone here today for a hearing on litigation affecting the stone slab industry and, and many, many times today we will probably be showing this, this product that is, even by Dr. Michael's analysis, completely safe in its current form. So, I'll be touching it. I'll be holding it and I will have no fear. Thank you. Dr. Michaels.
Dr. David Michaels: Good morning, Chairman Jordan, Ranking Member Raskin, Chairman Issa, Ranking Member Johnson, members of the subcommittee. Thank you for inviting me to testify. My name is David Michaels. I'm an epidemiologist and professor at the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health.
The views expressed here are my own and do not represent those of the university. From 2009 to 2017, I was Assistant Secretary of Labor for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the longest serving assistant secretary in OSHA's history. From 1998 to 2001, I served as Assistant Secretary of Energy for Environment, Safety and Health, charged with protecting workers, the community of residents, and the environment in and around the nation's nuclear weapons facilities.
Under my leadership, OSHA issued a long overdue and strengthened standard to protect workers exposed to silica dust.
The message of my testimony today is very straightforward.
Silicosis is a deadly, devastating and thoroughly preventable disease, and the artificial stone fabrication industry is one of the most hazardous of all industries where workers are exposed to silica. There's a global epidemic of silicosis among these workers. Over the last few years, hundreds of these workers have been sickened by silicosis, dozens have died or needed lung transplants.
The number of cases is alarmingly high and growing rapidly. The enormous costs of treating these cases, including lung transplantation, are born primarily by taxpayers.
Passage of HR 5437 would prohibit lawsuits against the corporations that manufacture artificial stone. Lawsuits play an important role in public health protection. If lawsuits by workers with silicosis are prohibited, these manufacturers will make no effort to prevent more workers from dying or becoming disabled by silicosis. We should not allow the carnage to continue. There are safe substitutes that make equally fashionable countertops. Shifting to substitutes will result in no loss of American jobs.
In California alone, in the last few years, almost 500 workers have been diagnosed with silicosis. 27 have died. 52 have undergone lung transplants. And these are just the cases in California where there's a surveillance effort to detect new cases. There are undoubtedly thousands more cases across the country since artificial stone fabrication work is no different in Washington state, Washington DC, or anywhere else in the country.
These cases are there, we [just] haven't seen them yet. Now, with so many new cases on the horizon, the artificial stone industry is asking Congress to prohibit lawsuits by workers sickened by their product. They blame fabricators who don't follow OSHA’s silica standard. The manufacturers know their product is being used unsafely, but they do absolutely nothing to stop it.
Other industries that manufacture hazardous products take a very different approach. They practice product stewardship. Responsible firms in high hazard industries consider the risks faced by downstream users of their products and endeavor to limit or mitigate those risks. Instead of asking Congress to protect them from lawsuits, beryllium and chemical manufacturers work with downstream users to ensure workers are safe, and by doing so, they also protect themselves from lawsuits.
When dozens of workers in microwave popcorn factories were diagnosed with a terrible lung disease, bronchiolitis obliterans, or popcorn lung, [as] it was called at the time, caused by exposure to the chemical diacetyl, the industry faced many lawsuits. It didn't blame the popcorn companies. No. It hired expert physicians to implement a national lung disease screening program and provide treatment for the sick workers. The firms replaced diacetyl with a safer substitute. The result was a win-win. There are no more workers getting sick and no more lawsuits.
The epidemic of silicosis in artificial stone workers was identified in Australia before we saw it here. Australia has not banned lawsuits. After careful study, Australia banned the deadly product.
This forced manufacturers to use a safer substitute, which they sell, and they earn profits through these sales. The same Australian workers are still fabricating countertops. But unlike those workers in the United States who fabricate countertops from artificial stone, and are at risk for silicosis, these Australian workers are able to go home to their families at the end of their shifts, as healthy as when they started their day.
Passage of this misguided legislation will ensure that this does not happen here. It promises to be a death sentence for workers who fabricate these countertops here in the USA. Thank you so much.
James Nevin: They also played the following video from Cambria showing its fabrication done by a robotic machine. And notably, robots don't get silicosis.
Mr. Issa: For everyone, this is an example of a machine where both water are being used, the water is being reclaimed, but most importantly, no person is there. It's completely sealed.
James Nevin: Ranking Democratic Member, Jamie Raskin, echoed Dr. Michaels’ concern for the lives of US workers rather than the profits of the foreign manufacturers and distributors dumping a uniquely toxic product in America.
Jamie Raskin: The Judiciary Committee, of course, is not a jury, we're not a courtroom. And when we do our work right, we're facilitating the proper execution of the law and the protection of the rights of the people in courts across the land. That's our proper role. I feel like we're somehow being invited to be jurors today. But in any event, I'm happy to learn about a very serious workplace-related injury that's taking place in the country.
Acute silicosis is a disease that renders your lungs useless. You struggle to breathe as fluid fills your lungs up, cutting off your oxygen supply. There's no cure for it. If you don't get a million-dollar double lung transplant, you effectively drown on dry land. Even the lucky people who get an organ transplant can extend their lives only by a few years.
Silicosis is a killer. It's contracted when workers who fabricate artificial stone inhale nanoparticles that settle in the lungs. They're so small and so plentiful in artificial stone that they can escape any respirator and evade any protections designed for avoiding harms from silica in natural stone, like wet saws.
Medical experts who treat silicosis patients agree that the only safe way to cut artificial stone is to wear a full hazard suit or to have machine only fabrication, neither of which is apparently yet technically or economically feasible. Now, I confess, I knew nothing about any of this before this hearing was scheduled.
But as I researched this horrid disease, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that our colleagues were suddenly focused on a severe health crisis afflicting working class craftsmen across America. I simply assumed they were moved by the same headlines in articles I was reading. Like one saying, “Southern California Man with Silicosis Wins Lawsuit Against Makers of Artificial Stone Slabs” or “Jury Finds Stone Companies at Fault in Lawsuit by Countertop Cutter, Sick with Silicosis,” and “California Workers who Cut Countertops are Dying of an Incurable Disease.”
Alas, I'd fallen victim to magical thinking. Our colleagues were getting involved in this rather esoteric matter not to help the workers, but to help the industry they work in, and specifically the Trump mega-donor, who is the only major domestic manufacturer of this artificial stone and is working like Houdini to escape liability for any and all of the injuries caused by the business that he's involved in.
We are here for one reason, and one reason only, because the jury system, and because American tort law are actually working for the people who work in this field right now. The workers are getting extremely sick and courts are finding that artificial stone manufacturers are at least partially at fault for it.
So, what do my colleagues across the aisle propose to do? Do they want to ban artificial stone? That's what they did in Australia, it’s an inherently dangerous substance. No.
Do they think we should prosecute the artificial stone CEOs for a deliberate or negligent failure to warn workers as Spain did, in 2023? No.
Do they want to let our American court system do what it does best and hear claims on a casecase-by-caseis? Under the general principles of American Tort Law and Products liability? No.
They want, as I understand it here, and I would love to be corrected, they want to immunize the big, primarily foreign-owned, manufacturers from being held accountable for the results of this process in our court system.
You know, I'll close with this thought, Mr. Chairman. There was a brief, fleeting moment when our colleagues across the aisle struck the pose of being the party of the working man.
I remember it well. Donald Trump promised in 2016, five, ten years from now we’ll be a different party. You're going to have a worker's party. On the campaign trail in 2024, now, Vice President JD Vance told a crowd, “We need a leader who's not in the pocket of big business, but answers to the working man, union and non-union alike.”
Even just two months ago. Long after this fantasy had passed, for most people, Vance said in an interview with Breitbart News, “We've got a lot ofworking-classs voters who frankly don't care what was Republican Orthodoxy 25 years ago. They're pushing the party in a different direction.” Well, my friends, if anybody wants to hang on to the fading embers of the idea that the GOP is the party of the working class, this hearing should put an end to that fantasy. Immunizing employer corporations who repeatedly, knowingly subject workers to the kinds of hazards involved in this process and then want to escape all liability is not an agenda that would be embraced by the party of the working class. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back.
James Nevin: Democratic Member Henry Johnson also expressed concern for the lives of US workers over the corporate profits of foreign manufacturers.
Henry Johnson: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Workers across the country are getting sick and dying of an entirely preventable disease. This disease is called silicosis, and it happens when silica dust and other toxic materials are inhaled into the lungs over and over again.
Toxic particles are trapped deep inside workers' lungs, leaving them struggling to breathe. Silicosis has no cure and it's a death sentence.
Many of us from Georgia hear silicosis, and we think of the men and women who worked in the mines their whole life. But this silicosis epidemic is caused by working with a material called artificial stone, in other words, fake stone. And it makes workers sick faster and younger. Doctors are seeing patients in their twenties and thirties, men with families and young children, so sick that they require double lung transplants. So sick that they can no longer work and no longer provide for their families. So sick that they slowly and painfully suffocate to death.
Fake stone produces dangerous toxins when it's cut, and there's no way to use a fake stone slab without cutting into it. So artificial stone, or fake stone, has a higher concentration of silica and the particles it produces are smaller, which can evade safety standards on the books for handling products like silica.
So why are we having this hearing today? Surely, we must be here to talk about how Congress can protect workers from artificial stone silicosis. No.
Maybe we are here to talk about how the workplace safety standards currently in place aren't doing enough to keep fake stone workers healthy? Not that either.
Perhaps we're here to discuss how we can make it easier for stone fabrication workers to unionize so that they can negotiate better health and safety protections for themselves. Nope.
So, if not to address the problem of workers being poisoned on the job, why did my colleagues across the aisle call this hearing?
Apparently, it's to give a handout to a millionaire friend of none other than Donald Trump. The bill behind today's hearing would give blanket immunity to fake stone manufacturers and suppliers, preventing injured workers from seeking justice in court. It would dismiss the hundreds of cases pending against these manufacturers and Congress would make a multimillionaire CEO, make that millionaire CEO’s problems go away just like that. While the workers who cut, grind, polish, and install this dangerous product struggle to make ends meet. Struggle to stay alive, actually. For those of you who are saying someone else is to blame, that employers are the real victims, or real villains, our courts determine liability all the time. People petition the court, have their grievances heard, and a judge and jury consider the evidence and a judgment is rendered.
Manufacturers are asking for a different scenario. They want to unlevel the playing field even more. One where the deep pockets go to Congress, Congress makes a snap judgment, and the big businesses never have to go to court again. That's not how the justice system is supposed to work, ladies and gentlemen.
And I condemn the blatant misuse of this committee to shield corporations at the expense of the American worker. I'm not here to give artificial or fake stone manufacturers a bailout. I'm here today for Mitchell Boulware, a Georgia resident who's owned and worked at a stone fabrication shop for over two decades.
Mitch and his son Jacob, who started working in the shop as a teenager, have both been diagnosed with silicosis. Because of shortness of breath and constant fatigue, Mitch is no longer able to work. Workers like Mitch and Jacob have every right to go to court and ask for justice from those who caused them harm. And it is unconscionable to propose that we take that right away from them.
So, thank you, Mr. Chairman, for calling this hearing, not because I support this bill, but because this hearing has provided the opportunity to tell the stories of workers like Mitch and Jacob, workers who deserve our attention and our respect, and they are dying.
And they deserve the opportunity, like everybody else working in this country, to bring their case to court.
James Nevin: I ask all of you to reach out to the Cal OSHA Standards Board and Governor Newsom to urge them to support and adopt WOEMA's petition to ban crystalline silica artificial stone in California and reject ISFA’s supposed licensing and certification proposal.
And reach out to your congressmen and women and urge them to reject the foreign slab manufacturer bailout bill HR 5437, which if passed, would take away the rights of countertop fabrication workers with fatal disease to sue the foreign slab manufacturers and distributors, which is the only way for these young workers and their families to get compensation. And which is the only way, absent a national ban on crystalline silica artificial stone, to get these foreign slab manufacturers and Cambria to stop dumping their deadly toxic product on US workers.
Thank you for tuning into this episode of From Dust to Verdict. I'm your host, James Nevin from the law firm of Brayton Purcell LLP. Remember to share, like, and subscribe. Stay tuned for our next episode where we will continue our discussions of the silicosis epidemic caused by the uniquely toxic crystalline silica artificial stone, as well as the associated litigation.
