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When Eric Reyes-Buriga first got a job in the stone fabrication industry, he liked it.
He worked with customers and learned a skilled trade.
For me, it was interesting because I'm the kind of person that likes to learn a lot of things.
It was something new.
Reyes Briga, who's now 36 years old and has two children,
was making countertops, like the ones you may have in your kitchen or bathroom.
He would take large slabs of stone and cut them to a customer's specific dimensions,
then polish and round off the edges, exactly to spec.
He says they took basic precautions in his shop.
No one told him about the risks.
Nobody was saying anything about what was dangerous or somebody saying, you know,
why you had to wear this kind of thing, why it's going to do this to your body.
They never said anything.
About two years ago, Reyes Briga's father-in-law, who he worked alongside, had trouble breathing.
He was diagnosed with a disease he had never heard of, silicosis.
Silicosis is an irreversible, incurable lung disease,