Stone Pros Marble Granite Quartz LLC: Washington L&I silica citation

Silica dust: the findings

• Cutting and polishing granite slabs exposed four workers to respirable crystalline silica, and their exposure levels went unchecked because no air monitoring was done. The problem was fixed during the inspection.
• No written plan to control crystalline silica exposure was kept by the employer.
• A written hazard communication program wasn't in place to cover silica and other hazardous chemicals.
• Training on the hazards was never given to workers who handled silica and other hazardous chemicals.

More hazards in this citation

• At the polishing station, noise monitoring was missing, hearing protection was inconsistent, and there were no hearing tests or noise training. A full-shift measurement put one worker at 88.7 dBA.
• Workers who used Barkeepers Friend, a cleanser that's a category 1 eye hazard, had no emergency eyewash or eye protection.
• Seatbelts weren't worn by forklift operators, and none had finished operator training.

The employer's time to answer the citation: Following the citation, the employer needed to post it, fix each violation, send written proof of the corrections, and pay within 15 working days. Appealing the citation was another option, open to the employer for 15 working days.

For those who worked at Stone Pros Marble Granite Quartz

Most new cases of silicosis in the US are now found in shops cutting quartz and other engineered stone. If your job at Stone Pros Marble Granite Quartz in Burlington included cutting, grinding, or polishing slabs, you may have two claims available. You could file a workers' comp claim through the employer's insurance, plus a lawsuit against the firms that made the stone.