Latino men who cut artificial-stone countertops in California are falling ill from an incurable and deadly lung disease at an alarming rate, a new study finds.

These workers are developing silicosis, a condition in which microscopic silica dust contained in the stone slabs they grind and polish is cutting up the inside of their lungs until the organs fail. Life expectancy can be extended through a lung transplant, but even then the fatal disease will continue to progress.