Artificial stone worktops are popular because they look great, are hard wearing, and affordable. But working with them can put your health – and your life – at serious risk if you don’t take the right precautions
What’s the danger?
When you cut, grind, or polish these worktops, you release Respirable Crystalline Silica (RCS) dust. This dust is so fine that you can’t see it, but it gets deep into your lungs and causes permanent damage.
Artificial stone can contain up to 95 per cent silica, which means the risk is much higher than with natural stone like granite or marble (although similar precautions need to be taken when working with high silica natural stones).
Breathing in this dust can lead to severe, chronic and life limiting conditions, such as:
• Silicosis – scarring of the lungs that makes breathing harder
• Lung cancer
• Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD)
• Asthma These illnesses don’t happen overnight – they build up over time.
Often you will not notice the changes but once the damage is done, it cannot be reversed.
Why you should care
Silicosis and other lung diseases can:
• Stop you from working
• Leave you short of breath for life.
• Lead to early death This is not just about following rules – it’s about protecting yourself, your family, and your future.
Your legal duty
Under COSHH Regulations, employers must protect workers from harmful substances like silica dust. That means:
• Doing proper risk assessments
• Using the right controls
• Providing training and supervision
• Carrying out health surveillance if there’s still a risk. If you’re self-employed, these duties apply to you too.
Workplace Health Campaign: Focus on lung disease
The risks associated with RCS are a core part of the HSENI Workplace Health Campaign. This initiative is aimed at tackling the most significant causes of work-related illness in Northern Ireland prioritising the following three key areas of workplace ill health:
1. Occupational Lung Diseases, including RCS exposure.
2. Occupational Cancers
3. Work-related Mental Wellbeing and Musculoskeletal Disorders.
The focus on Respirable Crystalline Silica highlights the severity of the threat within the construction, extractive and manufacturing sectors.
As part of HSENI’s wider Workplace Health Campaign, Manufacturing Inspectors are currently out visiting memorial masons and stone workers, including those cutting and fitting kitchen and bathroom worktops. They will check that risk assessments are in place and, where necessary, a program of health surveillance is in place. This should be overseen by a trained, competent Occupational Health Provider.
HSENI’s mission is clear: to ensure that the health of workers is protected through proactive controls, comprehensive training, and effective health surveillance. Every workplace has health risks, but workplace ill-health is preventable. Your responsibility is clear – protect yourself and your team – it’s the law, and it could save your life.
How to reduce the risk: Implement effective controls
Follow these steps every time you work with stone:
In the workshop
• Use water suppression and good ventilation when cutting
• Use slow-moving, thinner reciprocating saws where possible
• Do as much cutting and polishing in a properly equipped workshop rather than on-site
• Never dry brush dust off surfaces – it just puts more dust in the air
On site
• Ensure only minor modifications are carried out on-site in a well-ventilated, segregated area with restricted access
• Use on-tool water-suppression to reduce dust
• Provide Powered air purifying respirators (PAPR) or other equivalent positive pressure RPE
• Clean work area regularly using an M-class vacuum
• Never dry brush
Health Surveillance
If there’s still a risk when controls are in place, health surveillance is a must. Ask the following:
• Is there a disease linked to the substance?
• Can we detect the disease and reduce harm?
• Do workplace conditions make it likely that the disease will appear?
Checks should be done by a qualified Occupational Health Provider.
They may include lung function tests and chest X-rays. This allows early detection of serious conditions, it’s not just required by law – it saves lives.
For more visit
HSENI advice for the manufacturing industry
HSENI page about occupational lung disease
HSENI page for workplace health
