IN Brief:
- HSE has published new guidance on engineered stone fabrication following silicosis deaths in the sector.
- The regulator says dry cutting is unacceptable and water suppression is the route to legal compliance.
- More than 1,000 inspections are planned across Great Britain over the next 12 months.
The Health and Safety Executive has issued new guidance for engineered stone fabrication, making clear that dry cutting is unacceptable and that businesses must use effective controls to reduce exposure to respirable crystalline silica.
The regulator has published its first COSHH guidance sheet specifically for engineered stone, setting out the controls employers must use when cutting, shaping, grinding, polishing, or otherwise processing the material. The guidance follows recent silicosis deaths among young workers and will be backed by more than 1,000 HSE inspections across Great Britain over the next 12 months.
Engineered stone is widely used for kitchen and bathroom worktops, but some products can contain very high levels of crystalline silica. Cutting or grinding the material can release fine respirable crystalline silica dust, which can penetrate deep into the lungs and cause silicosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and lung cancer.
Under the new guidance, employers are expected to move to lower-silica engineered stone where possible, use on-tool water suppression, control mist, provide suitable respiratory protective equipment, and carry out regular health surveillance. HSE has framed these measures as legal requirements rather than optional good practice.
Research carried out for the regulator found that dry fabrication typically produces exposure to respirable crystalline silica five to ten times higher than wet methods using equivalent tools. It also found that lower-silica engineered stone products are available at comparable quality, weakening the case for continued reliance on higher-risk products where alternatives are technically suitable.
The guidance does not amount to a ban on engineered stone, but it substantially raises the practical bar for fabricators, contractors, installers, and suppliers. Businesses that have relied on informal controls, inconsistent workshop routines, or poorly supervised cutting methods now face a clearer enforcement environment, supported by a targeted inspection programme.
Construction safety enforcement has been moving steadily towards stronger evidence of control at the point of work. Whether the risk is dust, fire, structural compliance, temporary works, or plant movement, written procedures alone are carrying less weight where day-to-day practice falls short. Engineered stone now sits firmly in that pattern.
For fabrication workshops, compliance will depend on equipment selection, water suppression performance, tool maintenance, extraction where required, cleaning methods, worker training, RPE fit testing, health surveillance, and management supervision. Dust control cannot be treated as a final-stage PPE issue. Once respirable crystalline silica is airborne, the most effective control opportunity has already been missed.
The guidance will also affect procurement behaviour. Main contractors, kitchen and bathroom fit-out specialists, housebuilders, commercial refurbishment teams, and facilities managers are likely to ask more detailed questions about how worktops and stone products are fabricated before they arrive on site. A low-cost supply route that cannot demonstrate proper dust control may create compliance exposure across the wider project chain.
The sector has faced similar patterns before, where known hazards were technically understood long before they were consistently controlled in smaller workshops and subcontracted packages. Silica risk is not new, but engineered stone has changed the exposure profile because high-silica products can be processed intensively by specialist businesses operating away from the formal systems used on major sites.
The inspection programme will now determine how quickly the guidance changes behaviour. HSE has given fabricators a clearer standard, and enforcement will test whether responsible businesses are protected from being undercut by operators that continue to ignore controls. For contractors buying fabricated stone, dry cutting anywhere in the process now carries a clear compliance warning.
