Artificial stone used to make kitchen and bathroom countertops has been linked to cases of death and irreversible lung injury in workers who cut, grind and polish this increasingly popular material.

The biggest lung disease crisis since asbestos: Our love of stone kitchen benchtops is killing workers

Doctors are worried Australia is facing the worst occupational lung disease crisis since the peak of the asbestos disaster.

Stonemasons who cut engineered stone into a popular type of kitchen benchtop are contracting accelerated silicosis at alarming levels, after being exposed to unsafe levels of silica dust.