Inside the row of workshops in an industrial stretch of Pacoima, men labored over hefty slabs of speckled stone, saws whining over the sounds of Spanish-language rock. Pale dust rose around them as ...

Senate Bill 20 would create a system to certify fabrication shops where workers cut stone slabs to fashion them into countertops. Manufacturers could provide their slabs only to certified shops.

Artificial stone used to make kitchen and bathroom countertops has been linked to cases of death and irreversible lung injury in workers who cut, grind and polish this increasingly popular material.