Lawyers and doctors assisting the first UK tradespeople diagnosed with a lung disease linked to a material used in kitchen revamps believe the cases could mark the “start of an epidemic”.

The first cases of silicosis among tradespeople who have worked with an artificial stone popular in modern kitchen worktops have been reported in the UK in recent months.

The material – high-silica engineered stone quartz – has already been banned in Australia, where it was described as a modern-day asbestos after hundreds of suspected cases were identified.

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Daniel Easton, a partner with Leigh Day, is representing the first UK patients to have been diagnosed with silicosis after working with the stone. The long-term lung disease is caused by inhaling large amounts of crystalline silica dust, which is created while cutting the slabs.

He told i: “We may be sitting on an epidemic of silicosis that’s going to become a major issue over the next couple of years. There are signs that we may be starting down a similar road to Australia.

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It is understood up to 10 cases of silicosis linked to artifical stone have now been identified in the UK, after i revealed in February that three cases were reported last year to the surveillance scheme Sword, used by physicians to log work-related respiratory diseases.

The popularity of quartz kitchen surfaces has exploded in recent years, and it is now the UK’s most popular worktop material.

Specialist water cutting techniques can suppress the spread of dust during manufacturing, but dry cutting can leave workers exposed to harmful amounts of silica dust.

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In Australia, screening programmes since 2018 found 11 per cent of of 4,743 stonemasons and engineered stone workers received a probable or confirmed diagnosis of silicosis because of workplace exposure to dust known as respirable crystalline silica (RCS).