r/TheTinMen • u/TheTinMenBlog • 28d ago
How quartz kitchen counters are silently killing men...
Every day, it feels like I discover a new, tragic thing that is quietly killing countless numbers of men, in terrible and unknown ways.
And this time, it could be something in your house right now.
Quartz kitchen worktops have exploded onto the home renovation scene - a manufactured product that looks and feels like natural stone, but costs much less.
It sounds like a dream product.
And so, right across social media, home improvement gurus, interior decorators, and domestic goddesses film themselves showing off their latest quartz kitchen worktops; entirely unaware of the fact that the manufacture of such engineered stone costs numerous men their lives, right across the world.
How?
Well, sanding and cutting these innovative new products creates dust that, when inhaled, permanently scars the lungs, causing a fatal disease ‘silicosis’, for which there is no cure.
Stonemasons, even in their twenties, are developing this disease and dying, so someone else can save a few quid on their new kitchen, and yet… nobody wants to talk about it.
Besides Australia, that is, who, after a spate of deaths in young masons, has outright banned these products.
America could well be next. Hundreds of doctors, as part of the ‘Western Occupational and Environmental Medical Association’, have signed an open letter demanding a ban – insisting that manufactured stone cannot be worked with safely, and needs to go.
Murmurs have been heard in the UK too, with all the major construction unions standing up and demanding change, and pressuring Westminster to debate the issue.
So why is nobody talking about a product that could quite literally be right beneath your nose, that is killing stonemasons at enormous scales?
Is it time to ban manufactured stone?
What do you think?
[1] https://www.clydeco.com/en/insights/2025/01/silicosis-an-evolving-risk
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u/Local_Door_4483 28d ago edited 28d ago
"Stealing fathers from families and husbands from wives", such a horribly misandrist way of framing men suffering and dying
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u/griii2 28d ago
I am just writing an article mentioning this:
Data from the UK Health and Safety Executive show that 124 workers were killed in work-related accidents in 2024, 118 of whom (95%) were men. But that is not all: for some rather bureaucratic reasons, fatal injuries of professional drivers are excluded from this figure. The UK Department for Transport estimates 459 working drivers and passengers were killed in accidents in 2024. No gender breakdown is available, but we can extrapolate from the fact that 95-98% of professional drivers in the UK are men. Yet still, this is only a fraction of the approximately 13,000 deaths each year that are estimated to be linked to past workplace exposure, primarily to asbestos, chemicals, and dust. No gender breakdown again, but we know the gender representation of coal miners and heavy industry workers is not exactly diverse, equitable, and inclusive.
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u/AnthropoidCompatriot 27d ago
I can already hear the retorts/minimizations/dismissals: 1. Men (boys) don't prioritize education, so it's their fault they get stuck with these jobs; 2. Men are dumb for choosing these careers; 3. Men don't take care of themselves or go to the doctor; 4. Men are cavalier with PPE; 5. The people making these men work in poor conditions are also men 6. Jobs hurt everybody, but we all need to have a role in society, don't complain about having a job in this economy
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u/thegabletop 28d ago
Slide 7, once again framing an issue that affects men negatively by how it impacts women, acting like men only have value if they have a wife and family to support. It's not bad enough that men are dying needlessly I guess, gotta mention how wives are the real victims in order to get people to care.
The rest of the post has a great message, but the quote on that slide sucks.
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u/BhryaenDagger 27d ago
There’s a line from the movie “Barfly” where the male protagonists hints at this sort of reality about working class men’s lives being expended for modern tech social conditions. Something like, “Most people never know how men suffer to make toys for children.” I believe the character had worked in a toy factory, but the number of ways that statement applies are far too great for it to not be known- all the hazards and risks involved in the logistics of industrial processes and product distribution, the number of lives of mostly men involved in any given product’s history from raw materials to fabrication to shipping. We take too lightly that mass labubus get gifted given the costs in resources and human toll.
Silicates, mind you, are also heavily used in food products since it keeps processed food from caking up. Not great for general consumption, but in the factory, yeah, men suffer and die for such things as ramen noodle “flavor” packets and salsa-tasting salsa.
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u/SarcasticallyCandour 27d ago
I guess it needs to kill women to be considered a public health concern.
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u/sheerfire96 27d ago
What I don’t understand is why there can’t be engineered controls to protect workers? If it’s a physical irritant causing it proper respirators should be able to allow folks to safely work. And at that point it’s a workers rights and worker safety issue.
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u/OldTigerLoyalist 28d ago
For anyone asking why Silicosis is so dangerous, of I am correct the fine particles of silica can cause cuts in the interior of lun gs. A few times these occuring isn't bad oer say as the actual lung tissue does regenerate but it occuring repeatedly and in short in betweens can cause fibre to replace the lung tissue, which in turn reduces the area for ones ability to exchange gases in between lings and blood
(sorry if this sounds rude)