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Engineered quartz countertops pose hazards for material fabricators

2019-12-02T18:47:00-05:00

workers have gotten sick, and even died, after cutting this engineered stone and breathing in its dangerous dust, public health officials say. Overseas, some are even calling for a ban on selling engineered quartz for countertops.

NPR takes an investigative look at some of the workplace safety issues that have arisen amid explosive growth in the engineered quartz industry over recent decades.

The report looks into the incidence of silicosis—a debilitating and progressive lung disease caused when someone inhales silica dust in large and regular quantities—among engineered quartz workers. Silica is a major component of many engineered stone varieties, including in Cosentino's Stone System and Silestone product lines, which are highlighted in the report. The report delves into the company's hit-and-miss efforts to reduce and eliminate the creation of the toxic dust particles that cause the disease by replacing "dry cutting" and "dry grinding" processing operations with water-mediated techniques.

Design elegant spaces with unique quartz surface coverings by Compac, The Surfaces Company

2017-12-13T12:59:00-05:00

Established in 1975, Compac, The Surfaces Company was the first Spanish company to specialize in the manufacturing and distribution of marble and quartz surface coverings that can stand the test of time. To this day, Compac, The Surfaces Company imbues timeless innovation, durability, and sustainable production into every collection they design, as seen in the latest Unique Collection.

Unique Arabescato.

Unique Argento.

In designing the Unique Collection, Compac, The Surfaces Company was inspired by none other than nature. Although the Unique Collection appears to be made of natural marble, it is actually made with exceptionally resistant technological quartz — a signature specialty of the company. Not only is the technological quartz stunning, it is also highly resistant to scratching, staining, water, and humidity. Its non-porous quality completely blocks out dirt, as well.

Unique Calacatta.

Unique Marquina.

The customizable Unique Collection comes in a range of elegant colors and exp...

What comprises a company's culture, physically? News innovator, Quartz, is looking for answers and documenting the process

2016-03-24T14:36:00-04:00

Moving offices can be a pain, but it’s also an opportunity to take stock of how the company has grown and what it could still become. With this move, we’ve put an emphasis on capturing the culture, or Quartziness, that defines Quartz employees and their work: global, nerdy, creative, and so on...This diary is part of a new obsession at Quartz, also called The Office, which is exploring the future of work, from management structures to the gig economy to distributed workplaces to compensation.

From mass-scale organizations like WeWork to four year old "digitally native news outlet" Quartz, the questions of what defines work culture in a largely post-manufacturing, perennially fluid global infrastructural era are still being formulated. Quartz is currently asking how "How do you capture a company’s culture in a physical space?" as they prepare to move into a new office while documenting that process on Medium.

Desai Chai Architecture is designing this as-yet-undefined space for Quartz. Desai is correspondingly basing their ideas not only on the titular physical mineral, but a more abstract notion of what constitutes the company. Citing parallels to Sol LeWitt with the company's tendency to resemble "a structured grid with unexpected deviations," the team has so far defined vital elements of the Quartz culture as incorporating "glitch moments" in an intellectually playful environment. It's a clickable front row seat to the design concept process, as well as an intimate tour ...