Company failed to protect workers who now need lung transplants, regulators say

A Chicago countertop manufacturer failed to protect its workers from silica exposure, leaving a father and son in need of lung transplants, federal labor officials said.

Florenza Marble & Granite exposed employees to silica levels up to six times greater than permissible, leaving a 31-year worker, his 59-year-old father and a co-worker with silicosis, an incurable lung disease, the U.S. Department of Labor said Monday in a news release. 

In addition, a 47-year-old Florenza employee had been treated for unresolved work-related lung disease for more than three years, the agency stated.