Gunning Mix
Gunning mix is a compound used to repair holes and cracks in lining of electric furnaces. Ideal gunning mixtures are non-corrosive, heat resistant, and do not easily wear with age. Today, many of the gunning mixtures with which furnace and HVAC technicians repair your electric furnace are considered safe. However, safety has not been the historical priority of gunning mixture manufacturers. Even today, in many countries gunning mixtures are manufactured using asbestos or silicone compound materials, both of which are highly carcinogenic and can cause a slew of medical conditions in people who work with or live near these materials.
Many of the products and gunning mixes that were once manufactured with asbestos have now been discontinued. While consumers are generally thankful that most products on the market are relatively asbestos-free, there was a time not long ago when workers and consumers who used gunning mixtures and other asbestos-containing products were being exposed to harmful materials and they didn't even know it. Before the 1970s, when the public became aware of the dangers of friable asbestos particles, many gunning mix manufacturers put asbestos in their mixes. Despite the dangers posed by the material, asbestos may have seemed like an effective, lucrative ingredient. It was cheap, easy to acquire, and imbued their gunning mixes with its non-corrosive and heat resistant properties.
But asbestos was not the ideal ingredient for gunning mixtures and other consumer products. Asbestos is highly hazardous. In the 1970s, news of the dangers of asbestos began to spread in newspapers and nightly news programs around the nation. Workers and consumers had begun to develop strange, life-threatening illnesses, and these illnesses correlated with their relative exposure to asbestos materials. These justifiably angry workers and consumers took action, filing lawsuits against the manufacturers of gunning mixes. In their haste to make a dollar, these manufacturers had neglected to inform their patrons - HVAC workers, furnace technicians, do-it-yourselfers - that their gunning mixes contained a deadly material, potentially harmful to the health of anyone with whom it came into contact -- asbestos.
This first era of claims against the asbestos industry eventually led manufacturers to discontinue many of the asbestos-containing products - such as gunning mixes - that had compromised the health of their loyal customer base. However, they did not act quickly enough, and by the time the products were taken off market shelves, the damage had already been done. Thousands upon thousands of furnace workers, HVAC workers, construction contractors and homeowners would be exposed to the asbestos contained in gunning mixtures. When these gunning mixtures broke down with age, were disturbed, improperly removed or replaced, or during the simple application of these products countless innocent individuals - people with families for whom to care - were exposed to friable asbestos particles.
When airborne asbestos particles are inhaled, they enter the lungs, where they begin to slowly wreck havoc upon the system. Victims of asbestos exposure may develop any number of life-threatening illnesses, including various lung diseases and cancer, asbestosis, intestinal cancer, and mesothelioma, a cancer of the delicate lining of the lungs and respiratory tract. These illnesses may take years or decades to fully develop and present symptoms, by which time it may be too late. If you or someone you love has ever used an asbestos-containing gunning mix, worked in HVAC or furnace repair, or construction, please contact an experienced attorney. You and your family may be at risk of developing serious illnesses. You must act now. Seek the advice of a knowledgeable attorney today.
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