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Flintkote in New Orleans: Fifty Years of Asbestos Exposure in Manufacturing

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The Flintkote Company established its product line in Massachusetts for over 30 years before opening a plant in New Orleans in the late 1930s. Thus began forty years of asbestos exposure in manufacturing roofing products and floor tiles in NOLA. 

By 1963, Flintkote had 147 plants, including 21 international. Though they produced gypsum, paper products, pipes, and other cement and asbestos products, their focus was on construction materials throughout the 1970s. But in 1987, Flintkote sold its construction, stone, and cement products units as they turned their attention to their enormous asbestos liabilities.

Flintkote today is known for its asbestos-related lawsuits. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2004. At that time, they had paid $630 million for over 350,000 asbestos claims with over 155,000 cases yet to be tried at the time of bankruptcy. They remain liable for damages created by their use of asbestos. 

Asbestos exposure in manufacturing

The New Orleans plant was located at Poland Avenue and N. Galvez Street along a waterway that flowed directly into the Mississippi River. Workers handled raw asbestos here while adding it to roofing products and floor tiles. This continued at the New Orleans plant until the late 1970s. 

Results of asbestos exposure

By handling the asbestos with no protection, the microscopic fibers were allowed to permeate the air and, subsequently, enter the lungs through inhalation. These fibers can stay in the lungs for years – or decades – until possibly leading to lung cancer, asbestosis, or the fatal mesothelioma.  

Even today, there are workers fighting for justice after exposure at this plant. If you, or a loved one, believe you were exposed to asbestos, it is critical to see a doctor for regular medical exams. 

Asbestos Job Sites Louisiana

Lead Paint and Asbestos Found in New Orleans Courthouse

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A New Orleans courthouse in Orleans Parish was preparing for a renovation when both lead paint and asbestos were found throughout the ground and first floors. The courthouse was built 86 years ago when both the lead paint and asbestos were legally used in construction. Now, however, it is widely known that both can cause serious health repercussions.

Dangers of asbestos

The first regulation of asbestos took place as part of the 1970 Clean Air Act, yet it still exists in homes and commercial buildings built before 1978. Asbestos doesn’t pose a danger as long as it is undisturbed, but when scratched, broken, or otherwise damaged, the asbestos releases microscopic fibers into the air. These fibers can be inhaled through exposure and cause serious diseases, such as lung cancer, asbestosis, and mesothelioma – a deadly disease. Since the latency period can last up to 50 years after exposure, there will be deaths from exposure well into the next century. The Environmental Working Group Action Fund estimates that in the U.S. 10,000 people die from asbestos-related diseases each year.

Inspectors found asbestos in 40 percent of the bulk insulation samples taken from the ground and first floors. The potential harm from these samples qualified identified areas as EPA Hazard Category 1. Since fibers were already exposed, these areas required immediate abatement.

Other asbestos found in cloth, wrap, and spray-on insulation, were not yet releasing fibers so were named an EPA Category 7 – immediate abatement not required. These cases needed only the placement of warning labels.

Dangers of lead-based paint

Lead-based paint generally harms through ingestion. Children are the most vulnerable as they lick and touch the paint, which can contribute to developmental problems.

Paint samples taken from the courthouse revealed 63 of 79 (80 percent) taken from the first floor tested positive for lead. To remedy this, a liquid-based technique was used for removal to avoid spreading airborne dust or particles from the peeling paint.

What’s next?

The ground and first floors were tested and remediated for lead paint and asbestos in March of 2017. The renovations in these areas will be completed the summer of 2018. There was no testing on the second and third floors, however, since they were not in the renovation plans. Reports from the Materials Management Group (MMG) inspectors stated the spray-on insulation should be “assumed throughout the building.” These inspectors also reported, “Lead-based paint was detected throughout the interior painted surfaces of the building. Due to the deterioration of the painted surfaces, MMG recommends that a contractor licensed for lead removal/abatement is employed to control or abate these surfaces.”

Any structure, residential or commercial, built before 1980 should be suspected to have either, or both, lead-based paint and asbestos. Before renovations or tear-downs, it is important to hire inspectors familiar with hazardous substances to assess the need for abatement procedures. Don’t let the relatively minor cost of an inspection expose you and others to the potentially deadly fibers of asbestos.

Sri Lanka Government to Stop Asbestos Importation and Manufacturing

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Blue asbestos has been banned on the island of Sri Lanka since 1987, but a decision by the Sri Lanka cabinet has imposed controls on all asbestos. Importation and use will end on January 1, 2018 and manufacturing of asbestos-related products will be prohibited by 2024.

This ruling was enacted to protect the health of citizens and reduce the impact asbestos has on the environment. The World Health Organization (WHO) identified all types of asbestos as carcinogens that can cause lung cancer, cancer of the larynx and ovary, as well as the deadly disease, mesothelioma. These diseases are created when the tiny asbestos fibers are inhaled. This fiber-intense ‘dust’ occurs in the manufacture of products such as pipes, cement, and the brake-pads of vehicles. The manufacture of roofing sheets accounts for about 80 per cent of asbestos imported into Sri Lanka.

In addition to inhalation during the manufacturing process, products made from the mineral can release fibers into homes or businesses if the material is disturbed through remodeling, demolition, or in a natural disaster.

The government of Sri Lanka should be commended for controlling this lethal mineral through these bans. Even with this significant step, however, mesothelioma often occurs 20 to 50 years after exposure. This means the deadly affects of asbestos will continue for many decades into the future.

U.S. Steel Corp. Fined for Asbestos Exposure

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The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) penalized U.S. Steel Corp. $170,000 for giving tasks to seven employees that exposed them to asbestos at the coke production facility in Pittsburgh. In February, five employees removed and replaced asbestos-containing packing material. In March, two other employees burned and removed a rotten section of expansion pipe which tested positive for asbestos. Both incidents occurred at the company’s direction. Asbestos is well-known for its potential deadly effects from exposure and U.S. Steel was aware of the dangers. Diseases such as mesothelioma, lung cancer, and asbestosis can be contracted by inhalation of the fibers.

This was not the first infraction for U.S. Steel for failure to create a regulated area for handling asbestos as well as failing to notify employees of the presence of asbestos-containing material in their work area as evidenced by an OSHA citation in 2011. Furthermore, the company did not conduct employee training or use proper containment and disposal processes.

Christopher Robinson, director of OSHA’s Pittsburgh Area Office said, “Once again, we have found U.S. Steel Corp. failed to protect its employees from the serious risks of asbestos exposure. Breathing airborne asbestos fibers can cause lung damage that often progresses to disability and possible death. Given the potential danger to the health of its workers, the company must take immediate steps needed to avoid its employees’ prolonged exposure to asbestos.”

The company was given 15 days after receipt of the citations and proposed penalties to comply, ask for a meeting with OSHA’s area director, or dispute the citation in front of the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.

Citations may be viewed here.

Byzantine Monks and Asbestos

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That would seem to be an unexpected pairing, but maybe not as much as you’d think. Asbestos has been found as an strengthening additive to pottery as far back as 4500 years ago. It was known to be used 2000 years in the past for producing textiles. An article, such as a napkin, could be cleaned by simply throwing it in the fire. It could also be made into a cloth to separate a body from the fire materials in cremation. Its reputation as a “miracle mineral” has been known for many centuries. However, the 2014 discovery by art researchers of chrysotile – white asbestos – in the finish coating of the plaster beneath a portion of a wall painting in a Byzantine monastery in Cyprus, was unexpected. Researchers were investigating 12th century paintings in the Enkleistra of Neophytos when they found a smooth, mirror-like layer on a portion of the painting surface.

“[The monks] probably wanted to give more shine and different properties to this layer,” said UCLA archaeological scientist Ioanna Kakoulli, lead author of the new study. “It definitely wasn’t a casual decision — they must have understood the properties of the material.” Many advanced techniques were used in their study of these paintings. As they examined them, they found the asbestos-rich layer between a plaster layer and one of red paint. “So far, we’ve only found it in relation to those red pigments,” Kakoulli said.

Adding to the mystery, the asbestos deposits were 38 miles away at a high elevation. It was another 700 years before asbestos was found in the coating of other paintings. Now that these were found, the researchers will return to previously studied paintings to see if they missed asbestos in other artworks. “I have a feeling that it’s something that can be easily missed,” Kakoulli said. “This was quite an accidental discovery.”

Though asbestos was used since ancient times, it is said that Pliny the Younger noticed in the first century A.D. that slaves, working around the mineral, became ill. Yet, 2000 years later, we are still putting people at risk in many parts of the world, including the US, by not banning this deadly mineral.