Household Appliance Installers - Mesothelioma Risks

Appliance installers conducted a number of household operations including:

• Install new machines
• Repair broken appliances
• Remove old appliances from homes

Many of the duties performed by appliance workers required basic renovation work, during which asbestos became exposed to the air. The workers often cut or removed walls, floors, cabinetry and electrical wiring in order to install appliances into a provided space.

Many of the products that workers had to shape or remove were made or treated with asbestos. Additionally, many appliances were made with asbestos parts, and some wiring that connected the appliances to a power source was insulated with asbestos fibers.

Appliance Repair and Asbestos Exposure

Many major appliances contained asbestos as an insulating or heat shielding material. Some electrical products that contained asbestos include electric motors, generators, hair dryers, irons, toasters, washers, ranges, stoves and ovens. Asbestos was typically used in appliances as a filler or a reinforcing agent.

Asbestos-containing resins and molded products were often sold to manufacturers of heat-resistant electrical appliances and appliance parts that needed to withstand high temperatures including:

• Contactors
• Arc chutes
• Arc shields
• Breakers
• Distribution panels
• Breaker boxes
• Rotary switches
• Light switches
• Motor controllers
• Limit switches
• Transformers
• Relays
• Circuit breakers

Even after regulations were enacted to restrict the use of asbestos in newly produced products, appliance installers still faced exposure risks when they repaired or removed older appliances. Additionally, when a space needed to be remodeled to accommodate an appliance that generated a high amount of heat, installers would often have to cut away existing tiles and walls. Frequently, the special heat-resistant flooring and wall materials that furnaces, ovens and dryers were installed on included asbestos to reduce the risk of fire.

Some phenolic molding compounds contained 80 percent asbestos, but the average product contained 20 to 30 percent asbestos. Asbestos fibers were released from plastic products after they were scraped, sanded or rubbed while appliance installers prepared an area for a new appliance.

Union Carbide Chemical Corporation and Westinghouse, the manufacturer of Micarta, which was used in rotor blocks, transformer coil spacers and coil insulation for electrical appliances, were two major companies that used asbestos in the materials that appliance installers frequently handled. These companies used chrysotile as a predominate fiber in these compounds. A number of other heat resistant compounds utilized amosite and crocidolite fibers.

General Electric entered the phenolic moldings business in the 1920s. Because the company deemed the cost of protecting their 70,000 workers to be too high (between $60 and $140 million), it was not until the 1970s that the company eliminated asbestos.

Appliance repairmen from a number of companies went on to develop mesothelioma and other asbestos-related diseases from occupational exposure. If you worked as an appliance repairman and are worried about health changes that may be symptoms of an asbestos-related disease, the Mesothelioma Center’s Doctor Match Program can help you locate a care provider in your area.