What's in Your Kitchen? Workers are Falling Ill, Even Dying, After Making Kitchen Countertops

“…This kind of engineered stone, often marketed as simply ‘quartz,’ is now one of the most popular options for kitchen and bathrooms.

Health concerns emerge:

“The trouble is, workers have gotten sick, and even died, after cutting this engineered stone and breathing in its dangerous dust, public health officials say. Overseas, some are even calling for a ban on selling engineered quartz for countertops… And so far, physicians have identified at least 18 more countertop workers with silicosis in this country. They worry that more cases are out there, and more people are at risk, given that the countertop fabrication industry in the U.S. has around 100,000 workers….

Silestone comes to America:

“Cosentino, headquartered in Spain, started selling engineered quartz in Europe in 1990, under the brand name Silestone. In 1997, the company formed a subsidiary called Cosentino North America, to bring Silestone to a new market…

“Silestone's durability and resistance to stains thrilled kitchen designers. It was featured in Time and Good Housekeeping. The business grew rapidly. As Cosentino executive Brandon Calvo explained in a promotional video, ‘When we were awarded the national account for Home Depot, I don't think we knew what we were in for. I don't think we knew how big it was.’ In 2005, Cosentino ran an advertisement during the Super Bowl, featuring basketball star Dennis Rodman soaking in a bubble bath surrounded by bathroom countertops made of Silestone.

“Cosentino wasn't the only company offering the new miracle countertop. Competitors were selling similar materials under such brand names as Caesarstone, Zodiaq and Cambria. Over time, more and more companies started producing slabs of engineered quartz…

“Thousands of workers… toiled in countertop fabrication shops across the country, cutting that raw material into just the right size to fit in customers' kitchens.

“In addition to importing slabs of Silestone from Spain and selling them to countertop-making shops, Cosentino also operated its own network of shops, which came to be called Stone Systems. With a dozen locations, Stone Systems bills itself as ‘the largest network of commonly owned stone fabrication shops’ in North America.

The dangers of dry cutting:

“During those early days, according to pretrial depositions from Ublester Rodriguez and company executives, cutting was done dry. That means no spray of water on the cutting blades to keep dust from flying into the air. The company later changed this practice. But for years, Rodriguez did a variety of jobs to process the slabs, surrounded by dust from his own cutting and that of his co-workers…

“Dust from cut stone is potentially dangerous if it contains the mineral silica, which can cause a lung disease called silicosis. The lungs become inflamed and develop scars. There's no cure, and the disease is progressive. People with silicosis slowly suffocate.

“That's been known for a long time; silicosis is one of the oldest known occupational hazards. In the 1930s, the Department of Labor even made a workplace safety film called Stop Silicosis, which emphasized that silicosis could be prevented by controlling dust with water sprays and vacuum systems…

“[I]n 2009, a year earlier, the company had tested the workplace air for the first time, according to a document produced by the company during the lawsuit. Those tests revealed silica exposure levels above the legal limit in three of seven workers who wore monitoring devices to assess the air quality around them.

“In addition, ‘results exceeded the 50% advisory action level for three additional measured employees,’ according to the document, which noted that results at or above this level 'indicate the statistical potential for overexposure on other days, and the need for corrective action.’

“In 2011, another round of air tests found basically the same result: three of seven monitored workers above the permissible exposure limit, according to information revealed in the depositions. This was so even though all of the processes, the cutting and grinding, were using water to keep down the dust…

“Travis Dupre, the current vice president of sales for Stone Systems, testified in a deposition that he learned of the dangers of silica through word of mouth in the industry, around late 2003 or early 2004, when the Houston shop had moved to a new facility and instituted wet processes…

“In March 2013, for example, OSHA received a complaint about conditions at Stone Systems of New England, in Rhode Island. The inspector's report noted that wet grinding and cutting techniques were used, but ‘there has been no testing done to validate effectiveness of the wet methods to control the dust.’ […]

“OSHA did that testing, which showed that one worker there was exposed to airborne silica levels approximately 4.6 times the permissible limit. Another worker was exposed to 17.5 times the limit. At that higher level of exposure, the respirator being worn wouldn't offer enough protection, according to OSHA documents describing the violation.

“What's more, not all workers had been properly fit-tested for respirators, and some wearing respirators had facial hair, which interferes with the seal to the face, according to the citation.

“When asked about these OSHA citations in Rhode Island, as well as other OSHA citations from 2011 related to silica exposure in its shops in Minnesota and Colorado, a spokesperson for Cosentino replied that ‘all OSHA citations mentioned in your questions were minor citations and the penalties were significantly reduced. In addition, all of them were fully abated and resolved.’

“In 2014, Rodriguez and his illness came to the attention of occupational health specialists who had been on the lookout for cases in this industry…

Don't see the video above? Click here

“Next to workers finishing countertops with water-fed, hand-held tools, there were dust removal systems — devices that suck dust toward curtains of flowing water. Dupre said they were installed a couple of years ago…Dupre said results like this are the goal of Stone Systems for every location around the country. And that the company complies with OSHA regulations…”

For the complete NPR article by Nell Greenfieldboyce, click here. 

Buyer Beware of So-called Holiday Sales

by Kevin Brasler and Checkbook Staff

Mailed ads, newspaper inserts, online banners, emails, in-store displays, and price tags scream for your attention: "SALE! 60% OFF!" or "This weekend only: Save an extra 40%!" or "[Insert your favorite holiday] Special Savings!" or "Regular price: $299, our price: $199."

Most of these discount claims aren't really discounts at all, but attempts to mislead.

Checkbook tracked prices of big-ticket items sold at major retailers for 10 months and found disturbing pricing policies at 17 of the 19 we studied. At these stores, many sale prices—even those that advertise big savings—are bogus discounts, with the same price called a sale price more than half the time. At some stores, the fake sales never end. For several chains, Checkbook found most items we tracked were offered at a false discount every week or almost every week. In other words, the "regular price" listed on all those price tags is seldom, if ever, actually the price customers pay.

Checkbook found these stores' sales are USUALLY misleading: 

JC Penny, Kmart, Neiman Marcus, Sears, Kohl's Macy's

Checkbook found these stores' sales are OFTEN misleading: 

Best Buy, Home Depot, Lowe's, Gap, Banana Republic, Nordstrom, Walmart, Office Depot, Office Max, Bloomingdale's

Checkbook found these stores' sales are SOMETIMES misleading: 

Target, Staples

Checkbook found that only two stores offer LEGITIMATE sales: 

Costco and Bed Bath & Beyond

Checkbook believes that by constantly offering items at sale prices—and rarely if ever offering them at regular prices—many retailers engage in deceptive advertising. The stores are running those special-but-not-really-special discounts, holiday sales, and red-dot-spring/summer/whatever-event prices to manipulate you into buying items right away while "on sale" or soon face higher prices. It dissuades you from shopping around for a better price—after all, if something is being offered at a 60 percent discount, what's the point of comparing prices elsewhere? Ultimately, these bogus sales and discounts are designed to make you feel so good about the prices you pay that you'll snap up more stuff while you're shopping.

Consider in March 2017: once per week for 44 weeks Checkbook's researchers tracked the prices offered by 19 national chains for 20 items at each store. We selected the products to represent each retailers' offerings of big-ticket items.

Our research expanded on similar research we performed in 2014 and 2015, when we tracked prices at Best Buy, Costco, Home Depot, Kohl's, Macy's, Sears, and Target for 40 weeks: the problem now appears to be more widespread.

While we found that almost all the stores we checked often advertise misleading sales, some have more egregious pricing practices than others. JC Penney, Kmart, Kohl's, Macy's, and Sears offered the items we checked at sale prices more than 75 percent of the time. At Neiman Marcus and Sears, 10 of the items we tracked at each retailer were on sale every time we checked for 10 months.

However, nearly all the stores we shopped are guilty of some sales-price chicanery. Only Costco and Bed Bath & Beyond consistently conducted legitimate sales. The other 17 retailers as a group marked their items "on sale" 57 percent of the time. In other words, more often than not, they promoted prices as discounts that weren't really special prices.

Some retailers suggest their sale prices represent steep discounts, marking items as being on sale for 50 percent or more off regular prices. This can make customers think the "sale" offers them a fantastic deal. The opposite is usually the case. Checkbook finds that most of these items can be purchased for lower prices elsewhere.

At the bottom of this page we provide a summary of our findings for each of the retailers we shopped. At each chain we tracked prices for 20 items, but some items were discontinued during our 10-month research period. The summaries reported in the table apply to products available for at least five weeks (Note: most were available for more than seven months). Click here for the full results of our research, including a list of the items we were able to track for five or more weeks, how often each was offered at a sale price, and the range of stores' regular prices and sale prices for each of the 10 months we checked.

Don't assume that a sale price is a good price!

The store probably offers that price—or an even lower one—most of the time.

Shop around.

Is it a good deal? The only way to know is to compare prices offered by other retailers. Checkbook regularly finds big store-to-store price differences for the same items; it's not uncommon for stores to charge twice as much as their nearby competitors for the same product. A quick internet search will usually help you determine whether a store's price is a low or high price. Shopping bots like Pricegrabber.com and Yahoo can also be helpful.

If you find a lower price online, ask for a price match.

Checkbook's undercover shoppers found that many stores will match lower prices offered by their competitors, even if the other seller is an online store. Just use your smartphone or take along a printout of your deal to ask for a match.

Take your time.

Even if an item you're thinking about buying is really on sale, rather than almost always marked down, many stores will agree to hold their lower price for you beyond the end of the sale date. Just ask.

Don't fall for stores' manipulative tricks.

All the bogus sales and discounts are designed to make you feel good about the prices you pay and convince you to buy now and buy more. Even if you get a genuinely great deal, don't let those savings push you to spend more on other stuff.

Call or email stores to get competitive bids.

A bad-for-consumers policy enforced by manufacturers for many big-ticket products (appliances, electronics, etc.) is the use of "minimum advertised prices," or MAP. Designed to boost profits and squelch competition for large retailers that have a lot of clout with manufacturers, these policies require retailers to advertise product prices at or above preset minimums. Because of MAP, you won't obtain the best prices on most major brands of appliances from online searches or sales circulars. But MAP policies don't apply to prices quoted to customers in person, over the phone, or via email. Stores—particularly independent stores—often quote appliance prices below MAP if they know that's what it takes to close a deal.    

Use our ratings at Checkbook.org.

Our advice and ratings of stores and other local service providers for quality and price help you find the best deals from the best stores and companies.
 

Sale Fail Summary of Results
Store	Number of items we were able to track for at least 5 weeks	Percent of times tracked items were on sale	Number of tracked items that were on sale...
			At least 50% of the time	At least 75% of the time	At least 90% of the time	Every time we checked
Sears	20	85%	19	16	13	10
Macy's	20	84%	19	16	12	7
JCPenney	20	81%	18	16	8	3
Kohl's	19	81%	17	16	8	3
Kmart	20	76%	17	11	9	3
Banana Republic	17	65%	12	8	3	2
Bloomingdale's	19	62%	12	11	4	3
Gap	20	62%	13	7	4	3
Home Depot	20	60%	13	11	9	6
Neiman Marcus	19	60%	11	10	10	10
Walmart	20	55%	12	8	6	2
Office Depot/OfficeMax	20	54%	12	8	4	1
Lowe's	20	52%	10	9	8	4
Best Buy	19	51%	13	5	1	0
Nordstrom	15	48%	8	6	6	4
Staples	20	43%	9	3	1	0
Target	20	40%	9	5	5	4
Bed Bath & Beyond	20	15%	2	1	1	1
Costco	19	8%	0	0	0	0

This article is from Checkbook.