Railroad Workers and Asbestos Exposure

Since the early age of the steam locomotive, over one hundred years ago, the railway industry has relied heavily upon asbestos material for the production of carriages and engine parts and for use as insulation. As recently as the 1980s, many railroad companies and manufacturers of train carriages still purchased materials made from asbestos, which they used to repair and manufacture a variety of train surfaces and parts. Because of this long-standing, heavy reliance upon asbestos, many thousands of railroad workers over the past two centuries have been exposed to asbestos.

Historically, the railroad industry has been notorious for its widespread use of asbestos in a number of applications. In fact, research conducted over the last two decades has shown that railroad workers have a significantly greater chance than the general population of developing diseases associated with exposure to asbestos, including mesothelioma, asbestosis, and lung cancer. This disconcerting ratio of asbestos illness in the railway industry is unlikely to decline any time soon - according to some sources, locomotives carrying asbestos insulation were in use as recently as the late 1990s.

Because of the aforementioned heavy reliance upon asbestos in the railroad industry, railroad workers had many daily opportunities to be exposed to friable asbestos. In the earlier years of the railway age, asbestos lagging was used to insulate mains, steam pipes, and steam cylinders on steam locomotives. Boilers and boiler pipers were similarly insulated. During initial installation or with eventual wear, removal, renovation, or during inspection, the insulation covering these units could be disturbed, releasing asbestos fibers into the air and putting railroad workers at risk.

Even in later years, when the steam locomotive was replaced by the diesel engine, asbestos was still widely used as an insulator in the railroad industry. Carriages and boxcars "the cars that convey passengers or cargo" were oftentimes heavily lined with asbestos insulation. This insulation was installed in the walls, ceiling, and in the form of floor tiles. Installers were at risk as were those who removed or repaired the insulation.

Asbestos was also an essential material in the shoes covering locomotive brakes. By the nature of their function, asbestos brake shoes wore down often, releasing asbestos fibers and requiring frequent replacement. Until recently, when the use of asbestos in brake parts came to a halt in the U.S., many thousands of railroad workers were exposed to asbestos in the course of their work with locomotive brakes.

Gaskets were also composed of asbestos and subjected the engine-repair workers to the same exposure. Because gaskets were not usually custom-manufactured for a given engine, railroad workers had to cut, fashion, and manipulate the gasket material before it could be installed in the locomotive engine. During this manipulation and installation, friable asbestos fibers were released from the material; at which point, the railroad workers could aspirate the fibers, putting them at risk of developing related illnesses later in life.

Although railroad industry leaders had allegedly known about the dangers of asbestos exposure for many decades, railroad workers were rarely warned and were continually exposed to the toxic material. This alleged negligence on the part of industry leaders has resulted in hundreds of lawsuits against railroads and manufacturers of asbestos products, filed by railroad workers who were exposed to asbestos in the course of their work and subsequently developed illnesses like mesothelioma and lung cancer.

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