Power plant workers ran and maintained some of the hottest equipment in industry — high-pressure boilers, steam turbines, and the thousands of feet of steam and feedwater piping that connect them. For decades, nearly every hot surface in a power house was allegedly wrapped, blocked, or gasketed with asbestos to contain that heat. Boiler operators, turbine mechanics, pipefitters, boilermakers, and station maintenance crews were exposed whenever that equipment was insulated, torn down, or repaired.
How Power Plant Workers Were Exposed
The worst exposures came during outages, when boilers and turbines were opened for overhaul. Insulators stripped block and pipe covering off boiler walls, headers, and turbine casings, sending dust across the entire boiler and turbine deck. Mechanics scraped and replaced gaskets on manways, valves, and flanges; packed and repacked pump and valve stems; and patched crumbling boiler refractory. Because power houses are tall, open buildings, fiber released on one level drifted to workers on others. Routine work — chasing steam leaks, rebuilding valves, hanging new insulation — added steady daily exposure.
The Asbestos Materials — and the Products They Came In
Exposure tracked to a handful of material types. Each links to products documented in the AsbestosIndex as allegedly asbestos-containing:
Boiler & turbine insulation — block and pipe covering stripped from boiler walls, headers, steam lines, and turbine casings:
- Babcock & Wilcox boiler jacket insulation · De Laval turbine casing lagging (asbestos)
- Johns-Manville Kaylo pipe insulation · Pittsburgh Corning Unibestos pipe & block insulation, all allegedly asbestos-containing
Block insulation — rigid block applied over boilers, breeching, and large vessels:
- Careytemp block insulation · Fibreboard Pabco 85% magnesia block insulation — allegedly asbestos-containing
Gaskets & packing — cut, scraped, and repacked on valves, pumps, and header flanges:
- Garlock compressed asbestos sheet gaskets · Combustion Engineering superheater-header asbestos flange gaskets
- John Crane braided asbestos pump packing · Crane Co. industrial valves with asbestos packing, all allegedly asbestos-containing
Boiler refractory — patched inside furnaces and around burners:
- Harbison-Walker high-alumina insulating refractory brick (asbestos) · Combustion Engineering high-alumina refractory firebrick — allegedly asbestos-containing
Browse the full Boilers, Turbines, and Pipe Covering categories for more.
Take-Home Risk to Families
Like other dusty trades, power plant workers carried asbestos fibers home on their clothing, skin, and tools — exposing spouses and children who never worked with asbestos. See take-home asbestos exposure.
If you worked at a power plant and were diagnosed with mesothelioma or another asbestos-related disease after exposure to asbestos on the job, you may have a legal claim.
Product references reflect allegations documented in publicly filed asbestos litigation. This information is published by an independent media organization — not a law firm — and is educational only. It does not constitute legal advice or provide legal services.