The stone benchtop ad that found its way into a major US lawsuit
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The first major lawsuit over engineered stone in the US is using ads run by global manufacturer Caesarstone in Australia as evidence of what lawyers say is the kitchen benchtop maker’s misleading and “disgraceful” conduct.
Caesarstone, one of two major manufacturers supplying stone for Australia’s benchtops, ran newspaper, radio and social media ads last month warning that a total ban of engineered stone would not solve the silicosis crisis and could even place stonemasons at risk.
“It’s clear that this issue isn’t motivated solely by the safety of workers and will instead throw the construction industry into chaos,” the October ad says.
The ads ran before the release on October 27 of a Safe Work report calling for the total prohibition of engineered stone as the only way to keep workers safe from silicosis.
The manufacturers’ campaign was condemned by unions and health experts, and compared to the tactics of James Hardie, a company synonymous with asbestos.
A “mass tort” launched by California-based law firm Brayton Purcell on behalf of at least 25 US tradespeople has accused Caesarstone, alongside other manufacturers and masonry shops, of having “fraudulently concealed” the toxicity of their products.
The law firm believes this is the first action of its kind on this scale, following the settlement of an individual claim relating to silicosis in Texas in 2014.
Part of the written complaint, lodged on behalf of individual tradespeople across several courts in California and Oregon, cites the Australian ad, which it describes as “Caesarstone’s disgraceful October 2023 advertisements”.
“To deter Australian regulators from banning artificial stone, Caesarstone mounted a desperate advertising campaign in October 2023,” the court document says.
Brayton Purcell partner James Nevin said “every word” in the ad was misleading, and that it ignored the distinction between the crystalline silica in engineered stone products and the silica content of other materials worked on by stonemasons.
“The kicker, of course, is the end of that advertisement, where they say rather than a complete ban, just ban anything that’s over 40 per cent. That’s the kicker compared to what they’re saying in the US,” Nevin said in an interview with The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.
“What they’re saying here is there’s absolutely nothing wrong with the 95 per cent, it’s perfectly safe, it’s the fabrication shops that aren’t following safety.”
A spokesperson for Caesarstone, a named defendant in the case, declined to comment as the matter was before the courts, but a court document filed on behalf of the company in the US, and seen by this masthead, denies the company’s conduct contributed to the stonemasons’ conditions.
Caesarstone Australia chief executive David Cullen last month denied there was anything misleading about the advertising campaign.
“There is a genuine concern that focusing on only one product containing silica may increase risks to workers by creating the impression that other forms of stone are ‘safe’ and do not require the same level of caution,” he said at the time.
Caesarstone argued this year for a crystalline silica threshold of 40 per cent or below during a debate about what levels were safe to prevent lasting harm from the dust generated by stonemasons cutting the slabs.
All states and territories bar Western Australia have explicitly backed a ban on engineered stone following the release of the Safe Work report, with a decision expected to be made at a ministerial meeting on December 13.
Bunnings and IKEA have already announced they will stop selling the product next year.
Nevin described Australia’s silicosis epidemic as the “canary in the coalmine” since the popularity of engineered stone had caught on Australia before the US, and while the Albanese government is legislating a mandatory reporting system for cases, the US didn’t have an adequate reporting system.
He said dozens more cases were waiting to be lodged with his law firm and an associated firm in southern California, and anticipated lawsuits would be filed across several states a year from now.
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