Operating Engineers

While exposure to very low level environmental asbestos rarely causes disease, the ingestion of higher concentrations of asbestos fibers can cause the development of diseases such as asbestosis and mesothelioma. These diseases are both rare in the general population, but are more common in certain types of workers. Generally, these diseases develop most often in construction, shipyard, and industrial workers who worked with or around asbestos. Many such people worked without even knowing they were being exposed to this dangerous substance.

Asbestos Exposure

Operating engineers spend most of their work time operating and maintaining heavy machinery, including bulldozers, road graders, and backhoes. Operating engineers are at risk of asbestos exposure and asbestos-related diseases because their work is commonly carried out on construction sites, and also because many moving parts, including brake pads, brake linings, and gaskets, were made using asbestos.

Even though new construction no longer uses asbestos-containing products, operating engineers are still at risk of asbestos exposure in some situations, because of the possibility of some types of equipment still using asbestos in certain moving parts that are subject to high friction, heat, or static electricity.

In addition, demolition sites pose a risk because older buildings that contain asbestos are likely to release large amounts of dust during demolition. Although most states have strict regulations that control the demolition of buildings that contain asbestos, taking precautions against exposure is still important. There are all too many cases of contractors not following asbestos regulations, and this can present a risk to people who work at the site - particularly to those who operate the demolition equipment.

Road grader operators face an exposure risk because in some locations, asbestos-containing gravel, or gravel containing asbestos-like minerals, was spread on roads or in car parks and similar areas. Asbestos fibers can become airborne when dust rises, which can present an exposure risk to someone who is not wearing the necessary protective equipment (which includes a respirator or mask with a HEPA grade filter).

Operating Engineering Asbestos Uses

With its high tensile strength, and resistance to thermal and chemical degradation, asbestos was enormously popular between the 1940s and the 1980s, and was added to several thousand different types of products, including construction materials, appliances, and heat-resistant fabrics. These qualities made asbestos ideally suited for use in certain moving parts - including brake pads, brake linings, and gaskets - on heavy equipment such as those machines and vehicles that are used by operating engineers.

One recent lawsuit, in March 2005, involved a man who was awarded $2.25 million after developing mesothelioma that had been caused by asbestos exposure when working on the brakes of a Caterpillar bulldozer.

There have been allegations made that Caterpillar, a well-known brand of heavy equipment, may still have been adding asbestos to certain moving parts as recently as 2000.

Asbestos dust was not added to gravel spread on roads: the contamination of road gravel by asbestos dust is more or less accidental. In many cases gravel has been spread without the knowledge that it contained asbestos or an asbestos-like mineral. However, there have also been cases where known asbestos-containing gravel has been spread on roads, even though it has contained a relatively high percentage of asbestos.

What Operating Engineers Should Know

Asbestosis and mesothelioma are caused only by exposure to asbestos. Asbestosis is more common than mesothelioma, but currently has an overall lower death rate because people with asbestosis tend to have a better prognosis. These diseases generally occur in people who are exposed to airborne asbestos fibers. These fibers are tiny - too small to be seen with the human eye-but despite their small size the body is unable to effectively remove them.

When asbestos fibers become trapped in the lungs, they cause chronic irritation and inflammation. With repeated exposure to asbestos, a chronic respiratory disease called asbestosis can develop. Symptoms of this disease include pain and difficulty breathing, which are caused by the development of scar tissue that cannot function as normal lung tissue does.

Mesothelioma is a type of asbestos cancer that can develop after exposure to a relatively small amount of asbestos, and may cause disease in the lining of the lungs, heart, or abdominal cavity. Mesothelioma has a long latency period, meaning that someone who's exposed to asbestos might not develop the cancer until three to five decades later. This long latency period means that operating engineers who were exposed prior to the 1980s (when most uses of asbestos were discontinued) may still be at risk of developing the disease.

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