Steel Mill Workers

Certain groups of people have a much higher risk of disease, because they work or have worked in occupations at high risk of asbestos exposure. In America, the peak period of asbestos use was between the 1940s and 1980s. This period also coincides with the peak period of asbestos exposure risk for construction workers, shipyard workers, and workers in many industrial trades, including in the steel manufacturing industry.

Depending on where they work, some steel mill workers may still be at risk of asbestos exposure, because steel mills may still contain asbestos if they were built before the 1980s. While new uses of asbestos in construction were all but banned by the 1980s, any steel mill built prior to this time may contain plenty of asbestos-containing construction materials that still pose a hazard to workers.

Asbestos Exposure

Steel mills are places where the majority of workers are employed in occupations that involve working with extremely hot substances, working near extremely hot locations, or working with machinery with moving parts. All of these types of activities can potentially result in asbestos exposure.

Asbestos was added to many materials and products that were used in areas subjected to extremely hot temperatures. In any place where heat or fire was a hazard, asbestos was often used. For this reason, steel mill workers were and still are at high risk of asbestos exposure. This is true even now that the use of asbestos has been discontinued in manufacturing, because many older mills still contain asbestos.

Steel mill workers may have been exposed to asbestos simply by virtue of being in their place of work and carrying out normal daily tasks. The widespread use of asbestos-containing protective clothing in steel mills means that many workers were exposed, more or less constantly, to clouds of asbestos dust.

Steel Mill Asbestos Uses

Certain physical properties of asbestos, including high tensile strength, extreme fire resistance, and resistance to physical and chemical degradation, made it a highly desirable substance for many industrial and commercial purposes. Asbestos, when added to metals, concretes, plastics, and other substances, could make those substances more efficient insulators, more fire-proof, and more resistant to very high heats.

In steel mills, asbestos was used in machinery with moving parts that were subject to high heat and friction. The substance was added to cement, insulation, and other construction materials to reduce fire hazards, prevent head conduction, and limit the spread of any fire that did occur.

For many steel mill workers, however, the greatest risk was actually due to the fact that asbestos was woven into cloth that was used to make protective clothing, including gloves, aprons, coveralls, and face masks. Intact clothing posed an asbestos exposure risk, but the danger was even greater when the fabric ripped or tore, as fibers were much more likely to be released.

Asbestos-containing products, particularly insulation, were also used in blast furnaces, boilers, and steam pipes, and some of the tools that steel mill workers used.

What Steel Mill Workers Should Know

Asbestosis and mesothelioma, both of which occur only as a result of asbestos exposure are perhaps the most well-known asbestos-related diseases. Other types of cancer, including lung cancer and colorectal cancer, can also be caused by exposure to asbestos.

Asbestosis is a chronic lung condition that usually occurs in workers who experience long-term, heavy exposure to inhalable asbestos. Asbestos fibers, when inhaled, can lodge deep in delicate lung tissue. The body is not able to expel the fibers, and over time they cause chronic inflammation and irritation. Eventually, scar tissue develops. Scar tissue cannot function as normal healthy lung tissue does, and the result is that people with asbestosis have reduced lung function, leading to pain and difficulty breathing.

Mesothelioma is a very different type of disease, which usually develops in the lining of the lungs, but can also develop in the lining of the heart, abdomen, or testicles. Mesothelioma is a type of cancer that can develop as a result of much smaller amounts of exposure than asbestosis. These cancers are very difficult to diagnose and treat, and for these reasons mesothelioma is highly lethal, with a mortality rate of almost 100%.

Mesothelioma News