The Royal Australasian College of Physicians is calling on the Government to follow Australia’s lead in banning engineered stone, over its links to the incurable lung disease silicosis .
A spokesperson says inhaling even small amounts of the dust, has been linked with silicosis and other conditions including cancer and heart disease.
Abrading power tools creating very fine particulate dust is a problem no matter what you are cutting or grinding whether that be concrete,natural stone , asphalt or whatever.
But it is not just the power tools creating even finer silica particles when applied to engineered stone though, it’s a mixture of everything thrown into the matrix of these quartz conglomerates being ground into respirable dust,the resins ,metals and some lower end slabs have even been found to contain toxic waste.
And with quartz being piezoelectric when fractured ,the tiny particles created seem to attract other nasty particles including the heavy metals and resin particles from not only within the engineered stoneslabs themselves ,but also from the abrading buffs and blades.
Obviously it is a bit more complicated than that ,but yip the engineered stuff not only makes finer dust it also contains a higher percentage of other nasties you would not want to get into your lungs or system .
Oh I didn’t even think about the piezoelectric effect in quartz particles generating a charge! Shoulda, I’m pretty familiar with the phenomenon. So not only are you getting all the usual badness with the silica dust, you’ve got it and all these other carcinogens accumulating in higher concentrations in some areas all throughout the body thanks to the “raindrop effect” of charged particulates. Brutal.