A father-of-three who was given weeks to live has died after inhaling ‘lethal’ dust from kitchen worktops in his job.
Marek Marzec, 48, originally from Poland, had been working as a stoneworker in the UK since 2012.
Having cut kitchen worktops in ‘appalling working conditions’ throughout his career, he eventually developed silicosis - a long-term lung disease caused by the inhalation of large amounts of crystalline silica dust.
The disease had reached such an advanced stage that he was given just weeks to live at the end of October.
When my parents needed their countertop cut to accommodate a new deeper range, the guy who came in to do it did not wear a mask and I thought it was nuts.
I tried to offer him an unused 3m vented n95 mask from the pack I keep in my garage shop but he declined to use it.
I swear, I have met so many stupid construction contractors like this. They just do not get it.
He works like a man, he dies like a man