31 Deaths Reported in Kitchen Countertop Scandal

Star Tribune/GETTY Nearly 600 people have fallen ill and over 30 have died as a result of a deadly lung disease from working in a quartz countertop manufacturing facility. A new report published Wednesday by the California Department of Public Health found that the rate of silicosis—a lung disease caused by breathing in silica dust—has risen sharply over the past seven years. The report, which studies cases of the lung disease from 2019 to 2026, documented 592 cases of silicosis among quartz…