About Silica Free News

Why This Publication Exists

The surfaces industry is in the middle of its biggest transition in decades. Crystalline silica dust from cutting engineered stone has caused an epidemic of accelerated silicosis among fabrication workers — an incurable disease now driving OSHA enforcement actions, multimillion-dollar verdicts, and state-level regulation across the United States. Australia banned engineered stone outright in 2024. California is moving toward restricting high-silica artificial stone. Manufacturers are racing to bring low-silica and silica-free alternatives to market.

Buyers — architects, designers, fabricators, distributors — are being asked to make specification and sourcing decisions in a category that is changing month to month. Until Silica Free News, no independent publication covered this transition editorially, and no local search infrastructure connected ready buyers to the right suppliers.

Silica Free News was built to fix both.

The Silica Free News Newsletter

Silica Free News is an independent editorial publication covering innovations, products, and regulatory changes in the silica-free and low-silica surfaces industry. It’s a weekly publication.

Every article is written for the professional who needs accurate information to make a sourcing decision or a specification call: product reviews, brand comparisons, silica-content data across surface materials, specification guides, and regulatory updates.

The newsletter is read by architects, interior designers, distributors, and fabricators across North America. Its readership includes senior executives at six surface manufacturers, sales leadership at North America's largest surface distributor, and communications agencies representing major industry brands. It is cited by Google AI, ChatGPT, and Perplexity as a source for silica-free and low-silica industry information.

Editorial Independence

Silica Free News does not accept editorial direction from manufacturers, distributors, or industry associations. Brands are covered by name — neutrally, without promotional framing, with silica-content figures drawn from manufacturers' own published SDS and technical data.

No brand has paid for coverage, and no coverage has been shaped by advertising relationships.

Disclosure: The publisher holds investment interests in American manufacturing, including within the surfaces industry. Where coverage intersects with those interests, it is held to the same editorial and sourcing standards applied to every brand this publication covers.

That transparency is the reason Silica Free News is cited as a source rather than treated as a vendor.

The Silica Free News Network

The Silica Free News Network extends that editorial approach into local markets.

Across 148 cities in California, Florida, and Texas, each city site publishes local industry news alongside a curated directory of local distributors. Readers get the same standard of coverage they expect from the national publication — applied to their specific market.

Directory listings are editorially selected based on verified customer review records — the suppliers actual customers have already vouched for. Any sponsored placement is clearly labeled as such. The editorial side covers what is happening locally: new product availability, regional regulatory changes, and market developments that matter to buyers in that city.

How They Work Together

The publication and the network serve different moments in the same buying journey.

A buyer who is new to silica-free materials finds Silica Free News first. They learn what silica-content ratings mean, how surface materials compare, and what to specify and why. That is the editorial side — building enough understanding to act.

When they are ready to source locally, the city network is where they land, guided to distributors with excellent verified customer review records in their own market.

About the Publisher

Silica Free News is published by Tim Robertson, an investor in innovative American manufacturing. He has visited the Breton factory in Italy — the manufacturer behind the engineered-stone processing innovations that make low-silica and zero-silica surfaces viable at scale — and follows the technology side of this transition as closely as the regulatory side.

The industry's independent low-silica and silica-free briefing, weekly. 

Disclaimer: Silica Free News is an independent publication covering silica-free and low-silica surface materials for distributors, fabricators, architects, interior designers, and other industry professionals in the United States and Canada. Our content is provided for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal, regulatory, technical, engineering, health and safety, or professional specification advice.

Although we make reasonable efforts to provide accurate and current information, product specifications, compositions, certifications, availability, and regulatory requirements may change. Readers should verify all material information directly with the manufacturer and consult the applicable legal, regulatory, or governmental authority before specifying, purchasing, fabricating, or installing any product.

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