Some interesting things about silicosis are... 1) The ancient Greeks and Romans knew about the hazards of breathing dust, and knew that stone workers were part

Some interesting things about silicosis are... 1) The ancient Greeks and Romans knew about the hazards of breathing dust, and knew that stone workers were particularly at risk. 2) The name Silicosis was coined in 1870 by Achille Visconti who was studying lung disease in hard-rock miners. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicosis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicosis 3) Silicosis can be entirely avoided by cutting stone (and silicon bearing ceramic materials) with a "wet cut"... literally just add water! So, this danger has been known to stone workers for 2 millennia, protection is cheap, effective and readily available, and yet people are still falling prey to it. I have personally witnessed professional counter top installers working in obviously unsafe ways, who have actively & energetically refused face masks, water dust collection, and vacuum dust collection (which is far less effective). This is an article about human frailty, not about some new threat. It is an important point that human callousness towards the well being of others seems to be self emergent. Clearly the people at the top of the stone cutting industry in LA are not investing in training their new young workers in proper technique. How can this be addressed? I don't know. It seems Adam Smith and Karl Marx have both failed to leave us useful guidance on the subject.