Types of Companies with Asbestos Exposure

Aerospace

The advent of the aerospace industry created jobs during the twentieth century. Responsible for the design and production of aircraft, missiles, rockets, and spacecraft, over a million Americans were employed by aerospace companies at the industry’s height during the 1980s.

Unfortunately for these workers, aerospace factories typically used asbestos materials and equipment prior to the 1990s.

This included brakes, hoses, engines, and insulation material for planes. The planes had asbestos-containing pumps, valves, boilers, and other equipment.

The companies that sold these asbestos products to aerospace factories knew that asbestos posed serious health risks to factory workers.

Despite this, the asbestos companies did not warn workers of these dangers.

Many retired workers from the aerospace industry have developed mesothelioma, an aggressive cancer that most often forms on the lining of the lungs.

Automotive Factories

For over a century, the automotive industry has been a vital source of employment for the American workforce.

Although the industry is most closely associated with Detroit, Michigan, automotive assembly plants existed in many other states. Prior to the 1990s, these factories used a great deal of asbestos equipment and materials.

Auto plants had asbestos-containing pumps, valves, turbines, boilers, and other equipment. Automobile brakes, gaskets, and clutches also had asbestos.

Chevrolet

Plant closed 2007
Buffalo, NY

Chemical Plants

Chemical manufacturing in the United States employs over a million Americans. Responsible for such diverse products as plastics, pharmaceuticals, ceramics, and flavorings, chemical production is a major American industry.

Although people have been producing and refining chemicals for thousands of years, the industry’s modern form emerged around the turn of the 20^thcentury, spurred by a number of innovations made in the production of chemical dyes, plant fertilizers, sulfuric acid, and caustic soda.

Large factories were erected to manufacture these and other chemicals in bulk, and many American workers were hired to fulfill the labor needs of the industry.

Prior to the 1990s, chemical factories and plants used equipment and materials made from asbestos in a variety of applications. Asbestos-containing equipment included pumps, valves, turbines, boilers, and other equipment. Chemical factories also used asbestos lab and filtering equipment. Plastic factories used asbestos molding compounds.

Dupont

2551 Buffalo Ave
Niagara Falls, NY 14303

Hercules / Ciba Geigy

89 Lower Warren Street and Quaker Road
Glens Falls, NY 12801

Schenectady Chemical

1302 Congress Street
Schenectady, NY

Construction Sites Other Jobsites

Nearly six million American workers are employed by the construction industry – one of the industries involved with the Asbestos issue. During the bulk of the 20^th century, asbestos could often be found in construction equipment, as well as materials such as gaskets, ceiling and floor tile, joint compound, caulking, and shingles.

Asbestos, a fibrous mineral that was commonly used as a construction and building material prior to the 1990s, is the sole known cause of mesothelioma – an aggressive cancer most often forming in the lining of the lungs.

During construction projects, asbestos materials needed to be cut, ground, installed, and occasionally demo