Mesothelioma

No, we’re not talking about professional wrestling, but rather the scheduled seasonal shutdowns common in manufacturing facilities such as paper mills, foundries, automotive plants, and even schools and universities. Known informally as “Summer Slams,” these short windows, typically in July and August, are used for preventive maintenance, critical repairs, and renovation projects while regular operations are paused or students are on break.

With a compressed timeline and high stakes, Summer Slams bring a flurry of activity with dozens of projects happening all at once, often around the clock. Unfortunately, this rush to get everything done before the fall has been associated with an increased risk of asbestos exposure for many workers, some of whom would develop mesothelioma later in life.

All Hands on Deck

During a Summer Slam, companies often took an “all hands on deck” approach. That meant calling in not only full-time employees, but also outside contractors. Many workers jumped at the opportunity to earn overtime, working 12- to 18-hour shifts. However, the pressure to complete tasks quickly often resulted in people being assigned to jobs outside their normal responsibilities, such as painting, cleaning, and repairing, or working in unfamiliar areas of the facility. Workers who may have avoided asbestos exposure in their regular day-to-day roles faced an increased risk of exposure during the intense period of a Summer Slam. In the sweltering summer months, plants and facilities typically kept doors and windows closed to maintain a cooler working environment, allowing airborne asbestos fibers to linger and circulate, thereby compounding the danger.

Whether as regular employees or temporary contractors, here’s how various trades could have been exposed to asbestos during a Summer Slam:

Boilermakers: School powerhouses and industrial boiler rooms were common Summer Slam targets. Boilermakers worked in tight, poorly ventilated spaces to clean, repair, or replace furnaces, tanks, and boilers. Older systems were often insulated with asbestos, and the gaskets, rope, and cement used to seal boiler doors, manways, and handholes were frequently made of asbestos-containing materials. Every time these seals were removed, replaced, or disturbed, asbestos fibers could be released into the air. Boilermakers and anyone assisting them risked inhaling dangerous dust as they handled contaminated equipment. 

Pipefitters: Commercial buildings contain many miles of piping connecting critical equipment and, especially in buildings constructed before 1980, much of it was insulated with asbestos. In addition to the pipes themselves, asbestos has been found in a number of different component parts, as well as the equipment attached to the pipes, including gaskets, valves, ducts, steam traps, heat exchangers, and more. During a Summer Slam, pipefitters tasked with overhauling building systems could easily disturb the fine asbestos fibers and send them into the air. Even those not directly working on pipes could have been at risk if they were nearby during these activities. Many workers were never warned that the materials they were handling contained asbestos, nor that asbestos exposure could lead to life-threatening illness. 

Mill Workers: Millwrights, machine operators, technicians, laborers, and maintenance mechanics working in Massachusetts paper mills during the 1960s–1980s faced especially high risk. During Summer Slams, workers performed intensive overhauls of machinery, including replacing dryer felts, repairing steam traps, and cleaning or swapping out pumps, valves, and gaskets. When equipment was offline, every minute counted. Workers and outside contractors alike were called upon to get the mill back online as quickly as possible, exposing many to airborne asbestos fibers without protective equipment, or even knowledge of the risks. Read more about how paper mills in Massachusetts regularly exposed workers to asbestos. 

Electricians, Carpenters, and Welders: Summer Slams brought in a wide range of skilled trades, many of whom worked in close contact with asbestos-containing materials. Electricians risked exposure when handling wiring, panels, light fixtures, breakers, and insulating materials. Carpenters encountered asbestos in insulation, ceiling and floor tiles, drywall, joint compound, and roofing materials, particularly when cutting, sanding, or drilling. Welders disturbed asbestos while repairing or modifying boilers, machinery, or pipe systems that had been insulated decades earlier. These materials often looked no different from safe modern substitutes, and many workers were unaware of the danger they posed.

Maintenance Workers: Even routine tasks like sweeping, dusting, or prepping surfaces for painting were hazardous. Spray-applied asbestos was once common in ceilings and structural beams, and asbestos could be present in floor tiles, adhesives, caulks, and joint compound. Sweeping up in a work area where asbestos-containing materials or insulation had just been handled meant stirring up residual fibers and releasing them into the air, without any visible warning signs.

A Legacy of Exposure

Many workers who participated in Summer Slams never realized they were putting their health at risk. With so many trades on-site, so much activity compressed into a few weeks, and a lack of adequate safety training or equipment, the likelihood of unintentional asbestos exposure was high. For some, those few weeks of work had lifelong consequences.

Call an Experienced Mesothelioma Attorney

If you or someone you love worked in a manufacturing facility, paper mill, or school maintenance crew during a Summer Slam—or at any time before the 1980s—and later developed mesothelioma, you may be entitled to financial compensation. Please reach out to the mesothelioma lawyers at Shepard O’Donnell for a free case evaluation, and we will tell you if we think you have a viable claim. Shepard O’Donnell’s extensive experience with mesothelioma cases originating in a wide variety of workplace settings has resulted in life-changing verdicts or settlements for those suffering from this terrible disease and their families. Our results speak for themselves.

Many people are now aware of the dangers of asbestos and how it has caused tens of thousands of workers on construction sites, in paper mills, in many trades (including plumbers, pipefitters, and mechanics), and even Navy veterans, to develop mesothelioma. Mesothelioma is caused when microscopic asbestos dust and fibers are breathed into the lungs, causing irritation and scarring that damages the lungs and pleura over time, taking up to 50 years after initial exposure to develop into a cancer and show symptoms. 

Aside from workplace exposure, there is also potential for asbestos exposure in your own home. The danger is especially prevalent in older homes built before 1980. As home prices increase and it becomes harder for first-time home buyers to afford a newer house, buyers are increasingly turning to older “fixer-uppers,” intending to renovate. Unfortunately, many of these older homes were built before the widespread use of asbestos was stopped. In many cases, asbestos was used because of its durability, heat resistance, and fire resistance. If your home was built before 1980, it’s possible that some of its components contain asbestos and we caution you to do your research before beginning any renovation projects that involve:

• demolition
• sanding
• drilling
• grinding
• sawing
• hammering
• boiler or pipe removal

These activities will surely disturb any asbestos within your home and release potentially deadly dust and fibers into the air. 

Don’t Renovate Until You Test For Asbestos

It doesn’t matter how much was used, if asbestos is present in any amount, it poses a danger. If you suspect the presence of asbestos, do not disturb it and seal off the area, if possible. The best way to know for sure if asbestos is present is to have a sample of the suspicious product tested. 

Below we outline some of the most common places you might find asbestos in your older home. If you have plans to renovate any of these areas we urge you to take the necessary precautions and to contact a professional to help remove the asbestos and remediate the site. 

Asbestos in The Ceiling

The dreaded “popcorn” ceiling and suspended ceilings are the worst offenders. Popcorn ceilings, popular from the 1950s to the 1980s, were often made with vermiculite, a material that regularly contained asbestos. This is the stuff that gives the ceiling its telltale rough and bumpy texture. Do not attempt to remove this material yourself! 

Suspended ceilings, using individual tiles suspended within a frame, were often used in kitchens and basements to cover up unsightly ductwork and one of the most common materials used for these tiles was asbestos. Some estimates say that 5% to 10% of ceiling tiles in the US contain asbestos. 

If you know the company that manufactured your tiles, you can check to see whether they did, in fact, use asbestos in their process, but this information is often not readily available. If you don’t have this information available, there are some clues to look for: most old asbestos ceiling tiles look light colored, slightly textured and powdery white, often with small dotted indentations. If you look on the back of the tile and it’s a salmon color, those particular tiles are also asbestos-containing. 

Asbestos in The Floor

Vinyl floor tiles, sheet flooring, or linoleum sheet flooring were used extensively in homes constructed before the 1980s because of their durability, most often in kitchens, entryways, mudrooms, bathrooms, and finished basements. Many of today’s homeowners are opting for wood, tile, or luxury vinyl plank flooring. If you’re looking to change up your vinyl floors, be sure to find out if they contain asbestos before replacing them. In addition to their age, you can use the following clues to help identify hazardous material:

• Size: A bit thicker than modern vinyl tiles, the most common size for asbestos-containing vinyl floor tiles was 9″ x 9″, but they also came in 12″ x 12″ and 18″ x 18″.
• Color and pattern: Asbestos vinyl tiles were most often light blue, cream, pink, or green, while the most popular colors for asbestos vinyl sheet flooring were white, blue, and brown. They were often designed to look like carpeting, stone, or wood flooring.
• Stains: Many asbestos flooring was made with asphalt and over time, the oils from the asphalt leaks out, causing discoloration and fading. 
• Adhesive backing: Thick black flooring adhesive underneath the tiles can also indicate the presence of asbestos. Linoleum and vinyl sheet flooring could also contain asbestos backing in the form of black tar paper or felt paper. Although the sheet itself doesn’t contain asbestos, the backing that serves as a cushion can contain high asbestos concentrations.

If you’re in the market to replace your older vinyl floors, be sure to have them tested before you start. Alternatively, you could choose to put a floor on top of them, leaving the old contaminated flooring in place, sealed off and undisturbed. 

Asbestos in The Walls

After moving into your older home (and maybe after watching a few hours of HGTV) you may feel the urge to grab your sledgehammer and start the demo. STOP! You need to be mindful of the age of your home and whether you should be tearing down walls without a proper plan in place that protects you and your family from asbestos.

Drywall installed before 1980 might have used asbestos-containing joint compound to hide the seams and screws between the panels. Asbestos was often added to plaster – if your walls are labeled “fire-rated,” they definitely contain asbestos. Find out if your walls were produced by these common manufacturers of contaminated plaster walls. It is very important that you contain any dust created during the removal of these walls. We encourage you to hire a professional to determine if you can safely proceed!

Asbestos in The Basement

Many older homes have a boiler in the basement and it’s safe to say that any boiler installed before 1980 probably contains asbestos, especially if your boiler looks like a “snowman.” These cast iron snowman boilers—so called because they were short and round and covered with several inches of thick asbestos insulation—require special remediation companies to dispose of. The “jacketed” boiler, which is the type most people have, looks like a square or rectangle with a metal jacket on the outside and may not look like it has any asbestos in it, but, depending on the age of the boiler, the insulation behind that jacketing that could be asbestos. Any older boiler, whether snowman or jacketed, could also have asbestos insulation on the pipes: if you see a chalky white covering on your pipes, don’t touch it, don’t bang it, and make sure that, if it does turn out to be asbestos, it is handled properly before the rest of the boiler is replaced.

Asbestos in The Attic

If your old attic contains insulation made of cellulite or fiberglass, there is nothing for you to worry about. However, some old houses, especially those located close to vermiculite plants like those operated by WR Grace in Northampton in western Massachusetts, used a type of insulation made of vermiculite which, while not technically asbestos, is often contaminated with it. You can recognize this type of insulation by sight. Small, granular, and pebble-like material that resembles coarse sand, it is light and fluffy, and tan or light brown in color. It was typically blown into attics right on top of the ceiling in between the joists, and is especially vulnerable to being disturbed. Be sure to call a professional to remove this type of insulation.

Call Us For Help

If you or a loved one has worked on old houses in the past—whether as a DIY project or as your profession—and have developed mesothelioma, call us for a free consultation about whether you may be entitled to compensation. We take the time to explain the process from beginning to end, setting realistic expectations and timelines. If you are unable to come to our offices due to health or other reasons, we will come to you to listen to your story and tell you honestly if we think you have a viable claim. We have helped hundreds of individuals and families obtain justice for their injuries, regularly obtaining settlements and verdicts in the millions. And you will never pay unless we deliver results for you.