Workers who cut, grind, and polish quartz countertops have filed hundreds of engineered stone silicosis lawsuits against the manufacturers of those slabs, alleging the companies hid how dangerous their product becomes once a fabricator puts a blade to it. Juries in California and Colorado have returned verdicts in the tens of millions of dollars, settlements have topped $20 million, and Congress is now weighing a bill that would dismiss the pending cases outright.
Who Is Getting Sick
Engineered stone slabs sold under brands like Caesarstone, Cambria, and Cosentino’s Silestone contain upward of 90% crystalline silica. Cutting or polishing them releases respirable silica dust that scars lung tissue and causes silicosis. The traditional form of the disease took decades of mining or sandblasting work to develop. The engineered stone version is hitting workers in their twenties and thirties.
California’s Department of Public Health has confirmed 562 cases among artificial stone workers as of May 2026, with 31 deaths and 52 lung transplants. The median age at diagnosis is 46. The median age at death is 52.{1EHS Leaders. California Advances Ban on Engineered Stone} A 2023 study in JAMA Internal Medicine examined 52 California patients and found 98% were Latino immigrants, mostly from Mexico and Central America, and 58% had their disease initially misdiagnosed as pneumonia or tuberculosis.{} Nearly half first sought care in an emergency room.{2JAMA Network. Silicosis Among Immigrant Engineered Stone Countertop Fabrication Workers in California} Cal/OSHA inspectors found that roughly 95% of the fabrication shops they visited were out of compliance with state silica rules.{3KQED. As California Silicosis Cases Rise, Engineered Stone Industry Seeks Immunity in DC}
Who Is Being Sued
The lawsuits name manufacturers and suppliers up and down the engineered stone supply chain: Caesarstone, Cambria, Cosentino, and major retailers including Home Depot, Lowe’s, and IKEA. The core allegation is that these companies failed to warn fabricators about how hazardous the dust from their slabs really is, and marketed the product in misleading terms, including as “pure natural quartz.”
Cambria alone faces roughly 400 silica-related lawsuits. A single Los Angeles-area distributor has reported 65.{3KQED. As California Silicosis Cases Rise, Engineered Stone Industry Seeks Immunity in DC} A June 2026 industry report described a “recent spike” in new filings in Los Angeles Superior Court.{4Verus LLC. Silicosis Litigation and Engineered Stone: An Emerging Area of Mass Tort Exposure}
There is no federal multidistrict litigation. Cases are proceeding individually in state and federal courts, concentrated in California but spreading. A separate federal suit filed in San Francisco in January 2026 seeks medical monitoring for fabrication workers who have not yet been diagnosed. A consumer class action, Sarah Boldt et al. v. Caesarstone USA Inc. et al., is pending in the Central District of California, where a judge partially denied motions to dismiss in December 2024.{5Justia. Sarah Boldt et al. v. Caesarstone USA Inc. et al.}
Verdicts and Settlements So Far
The first major trial verdict came in August 2024. A Los Angeles jury awarded $52.4 million to Gustavo Reyes Gonzalez, a 33-year-old fabrication worker who needs a double lung transplant. The award included $30 million in punitive damages, and it is on appeal.{6Gen Re. Engineered Stone: A Real Emergence of Silicosis}{7Capital and Main. As Worker Silicosis Deaths Mount, GOP Moves to Shield Companies From Liability}
In February 2025, a Riverside County jury awarded $11.4 million against Caesarstone. The following month, a Fresno class action involving more than 60 fabrication workers settled for $22 million, and in April 2025 a wrongful death case against Caesarstone settled for $26 million.{6Gen Re. Engineered Stone: A Real Emergence of Silicosis}
In April 2026, a Denver jury returned a $17.45 million verdict in the first Colorado artificial stone silicosis case, and the third to reach a verdict nationally. The plaintiff, Tyler Jordan, was diagnosed at 28 after ten years at his family’s fabrication shop. The jury allocated fault at 63% to the employer, Jordan Marble and Granite, 32% to Cambria, and 3% to Hyundai USA. The split matters: the jury found that Cambria’s products were not defective and that Cambria was not negligent, but held it liable for misrepresentation. Cambria has said it will appeal.{8PR Newswire. Brayton Purcell LLP Announces $17,450,000 Verdict in First Colorado Artificial Stone Countertop Fabrication Silicosis Case}{9Womble Bond Dickinson. Colorado Jury Finds Cambria Not Negligent, Products Not Defective in Silicosis Case}
The firm Brayton Purcell LLP, which represents hundreds of stonecutters and has pursued many of these cases, reports nearly $200 million in verdicts and settlements to date.{10Brayton Purcell LLP. Artificial Stone Silicosis}
How Manufacturers Are Defending the Cases
The industry’s main argument is that the “wrong parties are being sued.” Cambria’s chief legal officer, Rebecca Schult, has said liability belongs with the fabrication shops that fail to follow workplace safety rules, not with the companies selling slabs. Cambria has stated that its own manufacturing operations have had no reported silicosis cases in 20 years, and the industry points to Cal/OSHA’s 95% noncompliance finding as evidence that the problem is a fabrication-shop problem.{7Capital and Main. As Worker Silicosis Deaths Mount, GOP Moves to Shield Companies From Liability}
The Colorado jury partially accepted that framing when it assigned the employer most of the fault. But it still found Cambria liable on the theory that the company sold its slabs as “pure natural quartz” without warning about the distinct hazards posed by the artificial product’s nano-sized silica particles.{11Tile Letter. $17.45 Million Verdict Reached in First Colorado Artificial Stone Countertop Fabrication Silicosis Case} That misrepresentation theory is now a template for other plaintiffs.
The Push for Federal Immunity
While defending the cases in court, the industry is also lobbying Congress to end them. In September 2025, Representative Tom McClintock of California introduced H.R. 5437, the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Stone Slab Products Act. The bill would prohibit civil lawsuits against manufacturers and sellers of stone slab products for injuries caused by third-party fabrication, and it would dismiss hundreds of pending cases. The House Judiciary Committee voted 16–7 on June 3, 2026, to advance the bill.{12Congress.gov. H.R. 5437, Protection of Lawful Commerce in Stone Slab Products Act}
McClintock has described fabrication shops as “sweatshops” that violate immigration, labor, and health laws, and has framed the bill as protecting a $30 billion industry.{13Rep. Tom McClintock. Protection of Lawful Commerce in Stone Slab Products Act Passes House Judiciary Committee} Public health researchers testifying against the bill argued it would remove a key accountability tool and increase worker deaths by shielding companies from the consequences of failing to warn.{14Congress.gov. Protection of Lawful Commerce in Stone Slab Products Act, Hearing Documents} The bill has not yet received a full House vote. Anyone with a current claim should treat it as the single largest threat to the litigation.
Regulatory Developments That Affect the Cases
OSHA’s permissible exposure limit for respirable crystalline silica is 50 micrograms per cubic meter of air over an eight-hour shift.{15CDC/NIOSH. Silicosis: Countertop Workers} In September 2023, the agency launched a focused inspection initiative targeting engineered stone fabrication shops, requiring area offices in Regions 1 through 8 to complete at least five inspections each within 12 months.{16OSHA. Standard Interpretation: Engineered Stone Fabrication and Installation Industry}
California has gone further. The state’s Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board approved an emergency temporary standard in December 2023 requiring wet cutting, prohibiting dry sweeping and compressed air, mandating powered air-purifying respirators, and requiring training in both English and Spanish.{17California DIR. Cal/OSHA Standards Board Approves Emergency Standard for Respirable Crystalline Silica} Those rules became permanent in February 2025.{18California DIR. Cal/OSHA Standards Board Advances Ban on Engineered Stone} Governor Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 20 in October 2025, classifying silicosis as a serious illness and requiring data-sharing between Cal/OSHA and the state health department.{14Congress.gov. Protection of Lawful Commerce in Stone Slab Products Act, Hearing Documents} Cal/OSHA has issued more than 900 citations totaling about $1.9 million in penalties.{}
On May 21, 2026, the Standards Board voted unanimously to begin a rulemaking that would prohibit the fabrication and installation of all artificial stone containing more than 1% crystalline silica, following a petition from the Western Occupational and Environmental Medicine Association.{1EHS Leaders. California Advances Ban on Engineered Stone}{19California OSHSB. Petition 609}
Insurance Coverage Fights
A verdict is not a check. Many of the companies defending these cases are now in separate fights with their insurers over whether coverage applies at all. At least eight coverage disputes are pending in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, with carriers including QBE Insurance Group, Liberty Mutual, and Travelers filing declaratory judgment actions arguing that silica exclusions in their policies bar coverage. A March 2026 ruling in Hanover American Insurance Company et al. v. Francini Inc. et al. favored insurers.{20Bloomberg Law. Artificial Stone Silica Suits Set Up Insurance Coverage Fights}
Policyholders have argued that the underlying lawsuits allege exposure to substances beyond silica, including metals and volatile organic compounds, and that the exclusions may not reach everything plaintiffs are claiming. Under California law, an insurer generally must defend if any portion of a lawsuit falls within potential coverage. Additional coverage disputes are pending in state courts in California and in federal courts in Virginia and New York.{20Bloomberg Law. Artificial Stone Silica Suits Set Up Insurance Coverage Fights}
If You Worked With Engineered Stone
If you cut, ground, or polished quartz countertops and have breathing problems, a persistent cough, or an unexplained decline in lung function, ask a physician about silicosis and request a high-resolution CT scan. The California data show that more than half of confirmed cases were initially misdiagnosed as pneumonia or tuberculosis, so a specific exposure history matters.{2JAMA Network. Silicosis Among Immigrant Engineered Stone Countertop Fabrication Workers in California} Lawsuits have been successfully brought on behalf of workers regardless of immigration status.{21Bloomberg Law. Countertop Silica Dust Cases Pile Up in Courts} Statutes of limitation vary by state, and the pending federal immunity bill could cut off claims if it becomes law, so timing matters.