Boilermakers and Asbestos Exposure

How Boilermakers Were Exposed to Asbestos

Boilermakers – along with boiler tenders, boiler operators, and other industrial, iron, and ship workers who worked with or around boilers – were routinely exposed to asbestos on the job. That’s because this harmful mineral was used abundantly in boilers and high-temperature industrial equipment and found throughout the varied locations where boilers were most frequently used.

For nearly a century, asbestos was the material of choice for thermal insulation and was therefore a standard part in boiler construction, from the insulation in pressure vessels and boiler fire boxes to the many pipes, gaskets, valves, door seals, turbines, and components around them. Boilermakers who fabricated and installed boilers were exposed daily to asbestos riddled throughout these parts, as would tenders, operators, and others who maintained and repaired boilers.

In addition to the asbestos contained within boilers and their essential components, boiler workers would have also been exposed to significant levels of asbestos from the locations where boilers were commonly found. This includes everything from schools, hospitals, and apartment buildings to industrial sites such as chemical and power plants, engine rooms on naval and merchant ships, factories, manufacturing facilities, and steel mills.

Boiler rooms in these environments would have contained large quantities of asbestos due to the energy they used and required, and the giant boilers within them would have demanded continual repair or replacement due to stress fractures, leaks, and corrosion caused by constant operation at high steam pressures. The often cramped and confined conditions of boiler rooms, and especially those found in basements or Naval ships and other vessels, would have also exacerbated risks of workers inhaling or ingesting dangerous asbestos fibers due to lack of ventilation and dust accumulation.

Because asbestos-containing boilers and boiler components were so essential during the 20th century, workers in many types of professions were exposed to the hazardous mineral.

This includes:

U.S. regulators began to curtail the use of asbestos in new products in the late 20^th century, but thousands of boilers and boiler rooms still exist across the country. Many of these decades-old boilers and facilities remain contaminated with asbestos insulation and asbestos-containing materials and continue to pose serious health risks to workers given their age and deterioration.