Asbestos Products

Ductwork Connectors

Flexible duct connectors are used to create flexible joints between two courses of duct works. They may be made of metal, vinyl or plastic. In the past, they were often made with material that contains asbestos, as were many parts of heating and air conditioning systems. Removing and replacing asbestos containing ductwork connectors is generally considered to be a two person job requiring special training.

How to recognize asbestos ductwork connectors

A visual inspection is not usually conclusive in determining if a ductwork connector contains asbestos or not. You may be able to tell by checking the manufacturer, but there's often no mark. In general, if the building was built before 1980, it's prudent to assume that the duct connector is made of a material that contains asbestos.

Removing asbestos ductwork connectors

The EPA and other organizations that deal with removing asbestos from buildings offer best practices and guidelines to professionals for removing asbestos ductwork connectors from heating ducts. It is strongly recommended that this work be performed by professionals with experience in asbestos abatement.

Who should be concerned about asbestos ductwork connectors?

If you were employed in HVAC, insulation or home construction before 1980, it is very likely that you worked with materials that contain asbestos, even if you were not informed of the fact. In addition to flexible duct connectors, there where hundreds of materials used in construction, insulation and air conditioning that contained asbestos. Exposure to asbestos puts you at risk of developing a deadly cancer, mesothelioma, which affects the tissues lining the lungs, the heart and the abdominal cavity. It is a fatal cancer with no known cure that is caused by inhaling asbestos dust and fibers in the air. If you had a job where you:

  • installed insulation
  • cut insulation
  • fit insulation
  • installed air conditioning or heating systems
  • repaired air conditioning or heating systemsrepaired or removed insulation (before or after 1980)

you have probably been exposed to high levels of asbestos.

What to do if you were exposed to asbestos in the workplace

While you can't change the fact that you may have been exposed to asbestos in your work, you can do one thing to decrease your chances of developing mesothelioma. If you smoke cigarettes or other tobacco products, stop. The risk of developing mesothelioma if you were exposed to asbestos AND smoke is fifty to ninety times greater than it is for the general population.

You should also take any respiratory symptoms seriously and consult a doctor if you experience shortness of breath, persistent cough that is different than your usual cough or tightness in the chest. Be sure to inform your doctor of your history of asbestos exposure so that he can make a fully informed diagnosis.

Finally, if you were exposed to asbestos and diagnosed with mesothelioma, you may be entitled to compensation for your illness. Consult a lawyer with experience in litigating and settling asbestos and mesothelioma cases to find out about your rights to compensation. Because the asbestos industry deliberately concealed the facts about asbestos and needlessly put millions of workers and the public at risk, the courts have often awarded settlements of millions of dollars to workers who developed mesothelioma after working with asbestos.

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