AMA Opposes High-Silica Countertops
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. – The American Medical Association (AMA) came out against high-silica-content engineered-stone products to curb silicosis nationwide earlier this week.
The nation’s largest doctors’ group voted Nov. 9 to oppose “sale, installation, and use” of products containing more than 1% crystalline silica during its 2026 interim meeting here at the Walt Disney Swan and Dolphin Resort.
The vote by the House of Delegates, the AMA’s legislative body, approved Resolution 933 originally presented by the American Thoracic Society (ATS), the world’s leading medical society dedicated to global respiratory health issues.
The approval makes the opposition of high-silica-content surfaces official policy for the AMA, which currently recognizes 302,000 members nationwide.
The vote also made it AMA’s official policy to back California’s proposed emergency regulations on high-silica-content materials and recommend “the industrial and commercial use of low-silica-content engineered-stone products and other safer alternatives.”
In Resolution 933, the AMA cited the “documented increase” in silicosis among countertop fabricators, and hazardous exposure remaining with current control methods and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) limits on respirable crystalline silica.
The AMA also noted support for the ATS’s Silicosis in the Artificial Stone Countertop Industry workshop report, issued in May. Resolution 933 echoed conclusions from the ATS report, including stronger efforts to find silicosis cases, improving access to screening and care, and “advancing higher-order prevention strategies,” including the use of lower-silica-content surfaces or other options.
Read AMA Resolution 933 here.
Read ATS Workshop Report here.
