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Asbestos Exposure in Philadelphia
While known for its historical importance and sightseeing, Philadelphia also has a major history of asbestos exposure.
Founded in the late 17th century, Philadelphia is among the oldest major cities in the United States. Even today, the City of Brotherly Love takes considerable pride in its past, preserving some of the best-known artifacts of the American Revolution. However, like many of the nation’s outpost of industry, Philadelphia has a lesser-known and more insidious history.
For decades, Philadelphia and its suburbs were at the center of the region’s burgeoning asbestos industry. Ambler, scarcely 20 miles from City Hall, was one of the first asbestos factory towns in America. Over the course of 100 years, Ambler-based businesses bought, repurposed, and sold a wide variety of asbestos-containing products, from textured wall paints to shingles and brake pads.
Outside of Ambler and within the city-proper, tens of thousands of Pennsylvanians worked with asbestos—in factories, shipyards, and military bases. Nobody knows how many Philadelphia residents were exposed to potentially life-threatening concentrations of asbestos dust and fiber. However, some researchers believe that up to 27 million Americans suffered from occupational asbestos exposure between 1940 and 1980, with another 1.3 million still at high risk.
We know today that asbestos is an incredibly potent human carcinogen, capable of causing illnesses up to and including cancer. Although the federal government began restricting asbestos supplies between the 1970s and late 1980s, thousands of homes, offices, and schools across the Philadelphia metropolitan region remain contaminated.
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If you may have been exposed to asbestos, speak with your healthcare provider about tests and screening to help detect the presence of asbestos fibers and asbestos-related diseases.
Philadelphia Asbestos Resources
Philadelphia lawmakers have enacted numerous measures to control asbestos across the city.
However, while the dangers of asbestos are now a matter of common knowledge, the asbestos industry was never ordered to recall its contaminated products—leaving many Philadelphia residents at-risk for asbestos exposure.
In recent years, the City of Philadelphia has begun compiling registers of asbestos-related resources, which include the following:
Regularly updated lists of certified asbestos investigators and project inspectors
A comprehensive register of licensed asbestos abatement contractors and laboratory detection services
Homeowners’ manuals for city residents who believe that their properties could be contaminated
Local asbestos control policies and structural demolition regulations
Notices on the City Code and its rules for asbestos-related projects
Problem Spots for Asbestos in Philadelphia
Asbestos was once widely considered a “miracle mineral.”
During and after the Industrial Revolution, asbestos—resistant to heat, electricity, and corrosion—was used to fabricate a wide range of resilient and inexpensive construction materials. When Philadelphia’s population began to boom in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, property developers rushed to meet unprecedented demand for affordable homes and tenements.
For these companies, asbestos seemed a simple solution to widespread cost- and safety-related problems.
Philadelphia-based businesses, like those in most other American cities, began importing and manufacturing massive amounts of asbestos.
While the extent of Philadelphia’s asbestos problem is difficult to gauge, there is very little doubt that asbestos remains a source of serious concern across and throughout the city.
Some of Philadelphia’s problem spots for asbestos include the following:
Philadelphia Schools Still Have An Asbestos Danger
Since October of 2019, more than a dozen Philadelphia schools faced asbestos-related closures and renovations, forcing the City Council to allocate an estimated $14 million to asbestos abatement and remediation projects.
According to former Philadelphia School District Superintendent Dr. William Haite, Jr., the overwhelming majority of area schools are presumed to contain asbestos.
Unfortunately, asbestos has been found almost everywhere inside Philadelphia-area schools—including auditoriums, classrooms, and even gyms.
Unfortunately, some Philadelphia teachers have been exposed to dangerous amounts of asbestos at their workplace.
Some educators have developed serious and potentially life-threatening conditions, including mesothelioma, that they attribute to latent asbestos exposure in local schools.
Schools with identified asbestos problems include:
Benjamin Franklin High School
Science Leadership Academy
T.M. Peirce Elementary
Pratt Early Childhood Center
Alexander K. McClure Elementary
Laura H. Carnell Elementary
Francis Hopkinson Elementary
James J. Sullivan Elementary
Clara Barton Elementary
Charles W. Henry School
Asbestos in Philadelphia schools presents such a serious risk that even today—more than 30 years after the E.P.A. passed its final ban on asbestos—local lawmakers are still struggling to control potential sources of contamination.
Philadelphia Refineries and Asbestos
Philadelphia’s oil refineries and other factories have been identified as probable sites of significant asbestos exposure. Asbestos-containing materials could be found in:
Construction products
Pipes
Boilers and ducts
Electrical equipment and equipment control consoles
Insulation
Valves
Flame-resistant materials
The now-defunct, 1,400-acre Philadelphia Energy Solutions plant, for instance, is believed to contain an estimated 30,000 tons of asbestos inside its piping systems. Hilco Redevelopment Partners, the company hired to renovate the facility, said that asbestos abatement alone will take at least four years.
Power Plants in Philadelphia: Asbestos Concern
Electrical suppliers and power plants made extensive use of asbestos, which was used to insulate boilers, generators, turbines, and gaskets from both heat and electricity.
Steel Mills: Asbestos Exposure in Philadelphia
While Pittsburgh might have a reputation as Pennsylvania’s “Steel City,” Philadelphia once housed its own steel industry.
Asbestos could be found in Pennsylvania steel mills including, but not limited to:
Bethlehem Steel
LTV Steel
Carnegie Steel Co.
Athos Steel Mill
U.S. Steel
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The Dangers of Residual Asbestos
Asbestos removal, or abatement, remains a major challenge in and across Philadelphia.
Since scientists believe that no amount of asbestos exposure is safe, any residual asbestos-containing materials—from roofing shingles to boiler ducts—could be potential sources of contamination.
Most buildings constructed before the mid 1980s contained some asbestos products, usually more than one.
While asbestos-containing materials are generally not dangerous when they are left undisturbed, any routine construction, renovation, or demolition work could unsettle latent asbestos. If and when deteriorating asbestos products are mishandled, they could release hazardous clouds of asbestos dust into the surrounding environment.
Airborne asbestos fibers pose a potent inhalation risk. Once these fibers are inside the body, they are all but impossible to eradicate. Over time, asbestos can infiltrate the lungs, respiratory system, and other organs, causing intense scarring, inflammation, and cellular abnormalities associated with malignant disease.
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Asbestos-containing products pose multifold risks: not only can asbestos injure homeowners, employees, and public-school students, it also creates an enormous liability.
Philadelphia Landowners: Legal liability for asbestos exposure
Under Pennsylvania state law, property owners have a legal obligation to maintain safe premises free from any unreasonable hazards. If a Pennsylvania property owner sells a building laden with asbestos-containing materials, they could be liable for any resulting asbestos-related injuries.
Fortunately, local business leaders have stepped up to help control Philadelphia’s asbestos problem: abatement services are available across the city, with different companies specializing in different types of removal.
While reliable services from experienced Philadelphia asbestos abatement providers can be expensive, having a proper abatement certification can make it substantially easier to sell a property.
Legal Options for Philadelphia Residents Injured By Asbestos Exposure
Compensation is available for workers and families exposed to asbestos, often without a lawsuit.
Philadelphia, more than many other cities, has continued to bear the burden of the asbestos industry’s negligence. Almost every year, schools and businesses are forced to close their doors for abatement after auditors detect unsafe levels of asbestos fibers in the atmosphere. In one recent incident, inspectors discovered damaged asbestos-containing plaster and paint at Building 21, forcing students and educators to make another painful return to virtual learning.
AsbestosClaims.Law
For Justinian C. Lane, getting compensation for asbestos victims is personal.
Justinian’s grandparents and his father all worked with asbestos in their younger years and died from asbestos-related cancers in their later years.
At the time of each of their deaths, no one in Justinian’s family knew that they were eligible to file an asbestos lawsuit and to seek compensation from the asbestos trusts.
Because no one in Justinian’s family knew their options, they never received any compensation for the death of their loved ones.
If you believe that you or your family member’s injury was related to asbestos exposure, you could be entitled to significant compensation.
This is money you could use to cover the costs of asbestos removal services, pay for medical treatment, and preemptively protect your physical well-being.
There are also asbestos trusts that offer compensation much more quickly and easily (without filing a lawsuit.)
If you’d like help with filing a claim, please get in touch by email at [email protected], or call or text us at (833) 4-ASBESTOS (427-2378) or (206) 455-9190. We’ll listen to your story and explain your options. And we never charge for anything unless you receive money in your pocket.
In addition to legal claims, veterans disability, social security and employment protection like workers compensation, FELA and The Jones Act for maritime workers, there are asbestos trusts that have been set up to compensate those harmed by asbestos without having to file a lawsuit.
There is no risk or cost to speak with one of our staff about your asbestos litigation. There are no fees unless you receive money.
If you have any additional questions or concerns related to asbestos, check out our website and YouTube page for videos, infographics and answers to your questions about asbestos, including health and safety, asbestos testing, removing asbestos from your home and building, and legal information about compensation for asbestos injuries.
Introducing the largest database of asbestos information on the planet.
W.A.R.D., which stands for the Worldwide Asbestos Research Database, helps clients to narrow down when and where they may have been exposed, as well as which products may still contain asbestos. W.A.R.D. will also help indicate compensation types and how much a person may be entitled to.