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More than 600 Californians who make countertops are sick with silicosis. It's a lung disease that's often fatal. They get it from their jobs after inhaling toxic silica dust that's generated when cutting and polishing artificial stone. Those who can no longer work because of silicosis often struggle to make ends meet, even after pursuing benefits that are supposed to help them. KQED's Farida Jhabvala Romero reports.
FARIDA JHABVALA ROMERO, BYLINE: Eleazar Resendiz Cortes is only 39 but gasps for air doing things that used to be easy - sweeping floors, pushing a lawnmower or biking with his kids. Doctors diagnosed him with silicosis. He knows coworkers who've had to get lung transplants, and he's afraid that will happen to him.
ELEAZAR RESENDIZ CORTES: (Speaking Spanish).
ROMERO: Resendiz Cortes can no longer work. He pursued workers' compensation benefits that are meant to cover medical care and lost wages for people injured on the job. But after two years, he still hasn't been paid. Relatives are helping his family cover rent and food. He says he's run out of savings and is in despair that he has no income to support his family.
RESENDIZ CORTES: (Speaking Spanish).
ROMERO: Resendiz Cortes is not the only one without these benefits. A study published last year in the American Journal of Public Health looked at insurance data for 114 silicosis patients in California and found most were covered by public health insurance. Only eight had medical care paid through workers' compensation.
BARRY RODICH: They pass everything on to the state. So the state is the one that has to pay the benefits in the beginning.
ROMERO: That's Resendiz Cortes' attorney, Barry Rodich. He represents about 100 other sick stonecutters denied workers' comp. In Resendiz Cortes' case, one insurer, AmTrust North America, denied liability for his claim, saying it wasn't supported by medical, legal or factual evidence. Another, Omaha National, also denied his claim for similar reasons. They said they can't comment on the specifics of the case but are committed to handling every claim fairly. Rodich is appealing to state officials. He says most insurers have an economic incentive to delay because these claims are expensive.
RODICH: I've had cases where there is probably no legitimate basis to maintain a denial. But they are just maintaining it until a judge tells them that they have to pick it up.
ROMERO: One complication to speedy resolution may be that stoneworkers often have multiple employers during their career. That's according to Yvonne Lang. She's an attorney who represents insurance companies and has helped settle silicosis claims.
YVONNE LANG: When there's multiple employers, the employers are going to point the fingers at each other. And if the employers are pointing the fingers at each other, the carriers are going to point the fingers at each other.
ROMERO: Lang says insurance companies are also trying to weed out fraudulent claims and need proof that an illness came from working for an employer they insured, which can delay the process. Meanwhile, workers' comp experts say, in general, it's often harder for workers to get benefits if they slowly develop an illness than if they sustain an injury, like falling off a ladder. Glenn Shor is a retired analyst with the California Division of Workers' Compensation.
GLENN SHOR: There's often coworkers who saw it happen, or the injury couldn't have been caused by anything else, but with occupational diseases, it's really a long-term chronic condition that doesn't develop very quickly. And so by the time it does develop, either they've moved on from that job - they might even be retired.
ROMERO: California is the only state actively tracking silicosis in the countertop industry. But doctors in other states are also reporting cases, and as more stonecutters get sick, advocates worry many won't get timely benefits. For NPR News, I'm Farida Jhabvala Romero in Oakland, California. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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