MPs will hold a Parliamentary debate on silicosis amid mounting scrutiny over lung-shredding dust destroying workers lives, with a long-running investigation by The i Paper revealing how young kitchen stonemasons are falling ill and dying from the deadly condition.
Next week’s Westminster debate, called by Liberal Democrat MP Liz Jarvis, will be attended by the widow and sister-in-law of George Elliott, a stonemason who died from silicosis after being exposed to toxic dust during a career which saw him work on refurbishments at No 10 Downing Street.
In 2024, The i Paper revealed that the UK’s first cases of silicosis in stonemasons cutting fashionable engineered stone – or quartz – kitchen worktops had been diagnosed by doctors after epidemics of the lung disease in other countries.
Currently, more than 50 UK quartz tradesmen have been diagnosed, four of whom have died, but analysis by leading workplace health and hygiene experts sent to senior NHS officials has warned case numbers could be as high as 1,000 in a workforce of 7,000.
Our Killer Kitchens campaign, launched in December last year, has led to the Health and Safety Executive’s (HSE) most significant crackdown on the engineered stone sector and been praised by MPs and workplace hygiene experts.
