SACRAMENTO, Calif. – California’s potential ban on work with crystalline-silica-based engineered stone moved closer to reality this week with proposed rules and a short countdown.

Under emergency standards proposed by Cal/OSHA on Sept. 16, the state’s workplace-safety enforcement agency, working with material with more than 1% crystalline silica by weight would be prohibited 60 days after official adoption, with an exception for surfaces already in inventory.

Public comments on the standards will be accepted through Sept. 30 at RS@dir.ca.gov.

The final rules would then need approval by the California Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board (COSHSB). Cal/OSHA developed the proposed rules following a public work session on July 31 in Oakland, Calif.

The proposed standards would effectively stop manufacture, fabrication, and installation of most man-made surfaces with quartz as the major component. Fired ceramic and porcelain tiles/slabs are exempt.

Fabrication work could continue by a business with materials “purchased, contracted for, or held in its possession” before official adoption of the rules by the COSHSB. However, any work with those surfaces must be completed within 180 days after official adoption.

The rules also ban onsite fabrication and offer a narrow description of allowed installation cutting to “to minor onsite adjustments to improve fit” of previously fabricated pieces.

The rules also tightened existing state standards on any fabrication before the final ban, including fewer allowed respirator types and stopping the “use of water bottles or other water source that is not continuous” for mandatory wet cutting.

The proposed rules also require employers to have documentation that materials contain less than 1% crystalline silica or not fall under the definition of “artificial stone.”

“In the absence of such documentation,” according to the proposed standard, “the employers and Division (Cal/OSHA) shall treat the material as artificial stone containing greater than 1% crystalline silica by weight.”

The International Surface Fabricators Association (ISFA) announced Sept. 17 that it will submit comments to offer an alternative shop-licensing program in California instead of an outright ban.

“We look forward to submitting our alternative to the drafted emergency language, and we will keep showing up for every meeting, every comment period, and every hearing,” said ISFA CEO Laurie Weber. “If California adopts something other than what we propose, we will help our members comply with it. What we will not do is stop asking for a process that gives this problem the seriousness it has earned.”

No timetable is set for final consideration of the standards by the COSHSB, which meets monthly in various locations throughout California.

The proposed standards are the result of the board accepting a petition on May 21 from the Western Occupational and Environmental Medical Association (WOEMA) calling for the banning of fabrication and installation of surfaces containing more than 1% crystalline silica by weight.

For more information, including the draft regulations, go to https://www.dir.ca.gov/dosh/doshreg/silica-2026/.

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