Silica Dust Litigation Could Be the Next Black Lung: The Brief

Tyler Jordan had spent a decade working in his parents’ Colorado shop cutting, shaping, and polishing quartz slabs for countertops and tabletops when, at 27, he was diagnosed with silicosis, an incurable and progressive occupational lung disease, Tre’Vaughn Howard reports.

Next week, his lawsuit against manufacturers of so-called engineered stone is scheduled to go to trial in Denver, and he’s not alone. Some lawyers and safety advocates see a landmark occupational health crisis akin to black lung and asbestos-related diseases, while manufacturers and distributors see the coming wave of lawsuits as such an existential threat that they’ve asked ...