Worker insurers dropped Florenza Marble & Granite for unsafe practices in 2022, 2024
CHICAGO ‒ Federal safety inspectors became aware that a 31-year-old employee of a Chicago countertop manufacturer needed a double lung transplant after suffering accelerated silicosis ‒ an incurable lung disease – and the U.S. Department of Labor immediately alerted the company of the potential imminent danger and an inspection by the department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration found workers exposed to silica levels up to six times greater than permissible limits.
When inspectors arrived in February 2024 to conduct air sampling at Florenza Marble & Granite Corp., they found employees laboring in a haze of dust throughout the workspace and workers using required respirators improperly. They also determined the company had few controls in place to reduce silica exposure as employees cut engineered and natural stone countertops for residential and commercial projects.
OSHA learned that, in addition to the 31-year-old in need of a double transplant, his 59-year-old father and co-worker also awaits a silicosis-related lung transplant and a 47-year-old employee has been treated for unresolved work-related lung disease for more than three years.
Further investigation found the company and owner Brad Karp did not develop a safety program to protect or monitor the health of its six employees, even though two workers compensation insurance carriers refused to insure the company in 2022 and 2024 for not providing air sampling or proving it protected its workers.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that the life expectancy for people diagnosed with silicosis is reduced by about 11 years and the chances of surviving 15 years after lung transplant are less than 11 percent.
“Our compliance officers found silica dust levels nearly six times higher than permissible levels and the owner made little or no effort to protect his employees from exposure,” said OSHA Chicago Regional Administrator Bill Donovan. “To make matters worse, Karp was indifferent to his employees’ suffering and refused to accept any responsibility for protecting them, even after two insurance carriers dropped the company for its egregious defiance of workplace safety standards.”
The two workers suffering from silicosis have limited English proficiency and received no information from their employer about the dangers of silica exposure or training in the use of personal protective equipment or precautions to protect their safety and health.
Specifically, OSHA found the following willful violations:
- Failing to establish a baseline of employees’ medical health to monitor silica exposure.
- Not performing medical surveillance to monitor exposure.
- Lacking engineering and administrative controls to reduce silica dust to safe levels.
- Exposing workers to unsafe levels of silica dust.
- Failing to have a respiratory protection program in place.
In addition, the agency identified 20 serious violations related to its lack of housekeeping, respirator deficiencies, lack of a silica exposure control plan or hazard communication program, not training employees in the use of compressed air and allowing its improper use.
Learn more about OSHA’s National Emphasis Program for silica exposure and silica safety information.
The company has 15 business days from receipt of its citations and penalties to comply, request an informal conference with OSHA’s area director, or contest the findings before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.
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Original article published by OSHA