Damning silicosis report calls for world-first ban on deadly engineered stone —will governments listen?
Silicosis is a work-related disease that is entirely preventable. It is on the rise globally due in part to weak regulators and companies putting profit before the safety of workers.
Yes, to protect workers you need strong regulations that are enforced. Ability to enforce rule of law is the starting point for a functioning state. Your argument is that this is not possible therefore we should just ban things. If the regulations make it so cost-prohibitive to use this stone, then it is functionally banned and we let the free market do R&D until they figure out a cost effective way within the regulations and worker protection laws, to cut the stone.
Banning things is a knee-jerk reaction that is unlikely to succeed because then you get the response “we can’t just ban everything”. Europian nations manage this strong regulation perfectly fine.
Of course everything shouldn’t be banned but everything does not lead to incurable diseases either. Working with things this dangerous and which provides no actual benefit for society is not worth regulating, consider who would pay for it.
Edit: It should also be noted that current evidence does not point towards there being a safe level of exposure to this dust. Any regulation must therefore be incredibly strict. Even if we disregard taxes, most of the economic pressure due to these regulations would befall the small businesses that cut these countertops. The large manufacturers of these materials would still be able to rake in profits while the little man pays for all the negatives.