Consultants and Expert Witnesses

SILICOSIS Article #8

How the Silicosis Tentacles Spread Far and Wide

By Gil Chotam & Greg Andrews | National Tile and Stone Authority (NTSA)

Silicosis is no longer confined to the jobsite. The tentacles of exposure stretch beyond saws, grinders, and dust-filled shops, into homes, cars, laundries, and the very lives of unsuspecting family members.

We've been on job sites. We've walked the shop floors. But we've also followed the dust trail into places most attorneys and experts never think to look.

The Invisible Passenger

When a fabricator clocks out after a long shift cutting engineered stone, they don't leave the danger behind. Microscopic silica particles cling to:

• Work pants and hoodies
• Tool bags and gloves
• Car seats and steering wheels
• Floor mats and AC vents

And they ride home, undetected.

Many workers change clothes only when they arrive home. Some never do. In shared households, that dust gets shaken out in laundry rooms, absorbed by furniture, and carried by children who climb into their parent's lap at the end of the day.

Who Else Is at Risk?

The exposure web is wider than most think. We've documented risks to:

• Laundry handlers (often a spouse or parent)
• Children playing on floors where contaminated clothes were discarded
• Carpool passengers and drivers
• Household members vacuuming or sweeping settled dust

These aren't just theoretical risks, they're medically documented. In countries like Australia, where silicosis rates among engineered stone workers have surged, secondary exposure cases are now part of the growing concern.

For Attorneys: Expand Your Exposure Model

If you're litigating an engineered stone case, ask these questions:

• Did the worker bring dusty clothes home each day?
• Who handled their laundry?
• Did young children share physical contact or play in shared spaces?
• Did the worker carpool with others in a dusty vehicle?

These are not fringe claims. These are foreseeable consequences of a shop culture that normalized dry cutting and dismissed the importance of containment protocols.

For Industry Professionals: This Is a Call to Contain

Engineered stone fabrication shops must stop treating dust control as a workplace-only issue. Real control means:

• Providing change rooms and lockers
• Mandating clean clothes before leaving the shop
• Cleaning and sealing work vehicles
• Educating workers on secondary exposure risks

The liability doesn't end at the shop door. Neither does the responsibility.

Final Thought: The Dust Doesn't Respect Boundaries

We used to think of silicosis as a disease of direct exposure, what you breathe in while on the job. But in engineered stone fabrication, the story is different. The dust migrates. The harm compounds. And the circle of impact widens.

One slab. One worker. One home.
That's how the tentacles of silicosis spread, quietly, invisibly, and dangerously far.

At NTSA, we're not just tracing the source, we're mapping the fallout.

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