Most asbestos products at least wrapped the fiber in something, a binder, a cement, a cloth. Industrial process materials didn't. This category is the raw fiber itself, sold by the bag as a drilling-mud additive, a filler, and a reinforcing fiber, and handled by cutting the sack open and dumping the contents by hand. Union Carbide's own 1973 measurements recorded 5.5 fibers per cubic centimeter in the breathing zone of a worker mixing asbestos drilling mud in an enclosed space, which in fifteen minutes puts roughly two years' worth of ordinary city background air through the lungs1, and the company wrote that number down and kept selling the product. You don't need to remember which brand came off the pallet or dig up any old records to find out whether you have a claim; if you mixed mud on a rig or handled bagged fiber in a plant, that's where we start.
Even ordinary city air carries a faint trace of asbestos everywhere, from natural mineral erosion and decades of industrial use, and that trace is the baseline both sides of the panel are measured against.
What these numbers mean. Asbestos in air is measured in fibers per cubic centimeter (f/cc), a unit that hides how dangerous a task was. Across this site we translate each measurement into fibers breathed, feet of fiber end to end, and years of ordinary city air, using conservative, government-sourced assumptions. See how we measure asbestos in air for the method and its limits.
You don't need the product names or old records. No fee unless we recover compensation for your family.
Quick answers
| Was mixing drilling mud really asbestos exposure? | Yes. The additive was raw chrysotile fiber in paper sacks, and mixing it meant cutting the sacks open and dumping loose asbestos into a hopper by hand. There was no binder and no coating holding the fiber down. |
|---|---|
| I worked on rigs but wasn't the one mixing. Was I exposed? | Possibly. Union Carbide's own testing measured airborne fiber even during open-air mixing, and enclosed mud rooms held dust in the air where everyone nearby breathed it. It's worth a conversation. |
| How much exposure do I need for a claim? | For mesothelioma, less than you'd expect. The bankruptcy trusts that pay many of these claims are built to compensate brief exposure on a worksite that used asbestos. Courts ask for a meaningful contribution, and we handle that distinction for you. |
| Which companies made these materials? | Union Carbide sold the Calidria chrysotile drilling-mud additive, Johns-Manville sold Micotet and other filler fibers, and mud suppliers in the Magcobar and Baroid lineage blended and distributed drilling fluids. Some now pay through trusts; Union Carbide is still in business and can be sued directly. |
| Do I need to remember the brand on the sack? | No. We reconstruct the products from your work history, our exposure database, and the trust documentation. The brand names are our job, not yours. |
| Do I have to file a lawsuit? | Not necessarily. Claims against the bankrupt makers are paper trust claims with no courtroom. A claim against Union Carbide is a lawsuit, and we explain both paths before you decide anything. |
| Can a spouse or adult child call for the worker? | Yes. Most of our first calls come from a wife or an adult child. You don't need a power of attorney to ask questions. |
“I started this firm after learning that the cancers that killed my father and grandparents were caused by asbestos, something we did not realize until it was too late to hold anyone accountable. That experience is why we built this site: so that no other family misses their chance to ask the questions, hear the options, and decide for themselves what to do.”
What asbestos industrial process materials were
Every other product page on this site describes something asbestos was made into: a gasket, a board, a brake lining. This page describes the fiber before it was made into anything. Industrial process materials were raw and near-raw chrysotile (white asbestos, the most common commercial type) sold by the bag to be poured into someone else's product or process at the point of use. The category runs to three main uses.
Drilling-mud additives. Drilling mud is the fluid pumped down an oil or gas well to cool the bit, balance pressure in the hole, and carry rock cuttings back to the surface. Asbestos fiber was sold as an additive for these muds, a viscosifier (a thickener) that helped the fluid suspend and lift cuttings. The signature product was Union Carbide's Calidria chrysotile, mined in California and shipped to rigs in paper sacks. The mixing itself happened at the well: a worker cut sacks open and dumped the loose fiber into the mud hopper, sack after sack, often for hours at a stretch. On cold-climate operations like Alaska's North Slope, that work moved indoors into enclosed mud rooms, where the dust from every sack stayed in the air around the mixer.
Filler and reinforcing fiber. The same raw chrysotile was sold to manufacturers and job sites as a general-purpose filler: fiber blended into plastics, mastics, coatings, sealants, and compounds to add bulk, strength, and heat resistance. Johns-Manville's Micotet and its MX-3808 filler, and carded (combed and cleaned) fiber from suppliers like Amatex, moved through American industry this way for decades. Whoever opened the bag and ran the blender stood at the same kind of exposure point as the mud mixer on the rig.
Process aids. Smaller volumes of raw fiber went into chemical and industrial processes themselves, used as a processing and filtration aid rather than as an ingredient in a finished product. The common thread across all three uses is the one that matters: the product was the fiber, handled loose, at essentially full strength.
How these materials put asbestos in the air
There's no mystery to the release mechanism here, and no argument about encapsulation to untangle. Raw fiber in a paper sack becomes airborne the moment the sack is cut, and it becomes airborne again at every step that follows: lifting and tipping the sack, the fall into the hopper, the dust cloud that rises off the surface, the crushed empty sacks piling up at the mixer's feet. Chrysotile in this form is entirely friable (crumbly and easily crushed to dust); friability isn't a failure mode of the product, it's the product working as designed. Do that work in the open air and the wind carries some of it away. Do it in an enclosed mud room on the North Slope and the fiber has nowhere to go but the mixer's breathing zone.
Here is what that work measured, in the maker's own hands. Each figure is a phase-contrast (PCM) measurement, which counts only the longer fibers and so it represents the minimum level of exposure, not the maximum.
| Task | Measured (f/cc) | ≈ years of background per 15 min | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Enclosed-space drilling-mud mixing | 5.5 | ~2 years | Union Carbide 19731 |
| Open-air drilling-mud mixing | 0.4–1.9 | trace–~1 year | Union Carbide 19731 |
By the illustrative math on our how we measure asbestos in air page, 15 minutes of enclosed drilling-mud mixing put roughly two years of ordinary city air through the lungs. This estimates fibers in the air breathed, not a retained dose.
And mud mixing wasn't a one-time event. A rig mixed mud continuously as the hole deepened, so the mixer repeated this task shift after shift, for the life of the well. The full story of who did this work and where, from the rig floor to the chemical plant, lives on the occupation and industry pages linked below; what belongs here is the product itself and the fact that its hazard required no wear, no damage, and no removal, only normal use.
What the makers knew
The strongest part of an industrial process materials case is a single document, and it belongs to the defendant.
On February 22, 1973, Union Carbide produced an internal corporate report recording breathing-zone airborne asbestos concentrations for drilling-mud work with its own Calidria chrysotile additive1. The numbers in the company's own report: roughly 0.4 to 1.9 f/cc when the mud was mixed in open air, and 5.5 f/cc in an enclosed simulation of North Slope conditions, the very environment where much of this product was actually used.
That document does two things for a family's case. First, it establishes the exposure itself, from a source no defense expert can call biased: the concentration figures on this page's table aren't a plaintiff consultant's reconstruction, they're the manufacturer's own industrial hygiene work. Second, it establishes knowledge with a date on it. From February 1973 forward, at the latest, Union Carbide cannot claim it didn't know what mixing its fiber put into a worker's air. When a company measures a hazard, files the result, and neither warns the workforce nor changes the product, the conduct supports a claim for gross neglect and, where the law allows, punitive damages.
The report also answers, in advance, the defense framing you'll see in the defenses section below: that process materials were a "marginal" or trivial exposure next to insulation or refractory work. The maker itself documented meaningful breathing-zone fiber, in ordinary use, with nothing going wrong.
Who was exposed
Rather than retell each worker's story here, this page hands that off to the pages that own it:
- oil and gas drilling workers, who mixed asbestos mud on rigs from Texas to the North Slope
- chemical and process plant workers, who handled bagged filler and process fiber at the blender and the line
If you or your family member cut open sacks of fiber in either setting, the exposure history is usually easy to reconstruct.
The manufacturers and the trusts
Recovery in this category runs down two tracks at once, and the split matters. The bankrupt makers now pay through trusts, which are paper claims with no lawsuit. Union Carbide never went bankrupt; it's a subsidiary of Dow, it still defends these cases in court, and claims against it are lawsuits. One career often supports both tracks at the same time, and one pathway doesn't reduce another.
| Manufacturer / brand | Status | How claims are handled |
|---|---|---|
| Magcobar / Baroid drilling fluids (Magnet Cove Barium; Dresser; Halliburton lineage) | Halliburton Asbestos Trust | Trust claim, no lawsuit |
| Johns-Manville (Raw chrysotile fiber) | Johns-Manville Asbestos Trust | Trust claim, no lawsuit |
| Union Carbide (Calidria chrysotile drilling-mud additive) | Solvent (Dow subsidiary) | Lawsuit |
| A brief note on the corporate family trees in that first row: names like Magcobar, Baroid, Magnet Cove Barium, Dresser, and Halliburton connect through decades of oil-field acquisitions, and which entity answers for which years is an analysis we run for your file, not something you need to sort out. |
If the idea of a lawsuit is uncomfortable, you're in good company; Clarence Borel, the refinery insulator whose 1973 case built the modern asbestos-litigation system, didn't want to sue either, and we can pursue trust claims alone if that's your preference.
Sources of compensation
An industrial process materials case usually draws from several sources at once, and they run in parallel:
- Asbestos bankruptcy trusts. The makers and suppliers who went bankrupt set aside money to pay the people they harmed. These are paper claims, with no lawsuit and no courtroom, and one career often supports filings against several trusts. How asbestos trust claims work.
- Lawsuits against solvent makers. Union Carbide is still in business as a Dow subsidiary and can be sued directly over its Calidria additive. How product liability lawsuits work.
- Premises liability against site owners. The operators and plant owners who controlled the worksite can be held responsible for the conditions they allowed. How premises liability claims work.
- Federal and disability benefits. Offshore drilling work can implicate maritime remedies like the Jones Act, and disability benefits may be available alongside everything else. How asbestos disability and benefit claims work.
In our case-law library
71 court decisions in our case-law library involve industrial process materials. Among them:
- Fowler v. Akzo Nobel Chemicals, Inc.New Jersey Supreme Court, 2022 · Worker in the batching area who opened, poured and weighed raw ingredients including asbestos at Bloomfield Plant (adhesive products manufacturing plant), 1954-1994
- Bagwell v. Union Carbide Corp.Louisiana Supreme Court, 2021 · Employee of RMC (drilling mud additives)
- Aubin v. Union Carbide CorporationFlorida Supreme Court, 2015 · Construction supervisor at Desoto Lakes residential development, Sarasota, 1972-1974
- Union Carbide Corporation v. NixMississippi Supreme Court, 2014 · Maintaining the viscosity of drilling mud at WellTech drilling company, 1980-1986
- Csr, Limited v. TaylorMaryland Court of Appeals, 2009 · Stevedore at Port of Baltimore, 1942-1983
- Henderson v. MeadWESTVACO CorporationAlabama Supreme Court, 2009 · Part-time and summer worker; unloaded railcars of raw asbestos fibers at Cement Asbestos Products Company (CAPCO) plant, late 1960s; summers of 1971 and 1972
In our products database
The raw fiber and filler our document library describes, by the company that made or sold it. Each product's page says when it was made and how much asbestos it held, from the documents.
Acoustic: Fiberspray Asbestos
Asbestos Corp. Services: A.C.L. Superfine · Acl Asbestos
Asbestos Textile Co.: Mother Lode
Carey Canadian Mines: 7 Rf-9 · Carey 7 RF · Pavebestos
Fibreboard: Asbestos Fibers
GAF: Asbestos (generic name)
Great Lakes Carbon: Diabestos
Haveg: Havestos
Huxley Westfried: 0-0-10-6 · 0-0-7-9
Johns-Manville: Afd · Asbaltic · Asbestos Fibers · Blue Mud · Celite · Chlorbestos · Fibra Flow · Fibra-Flo · Plastibest
Maker not given: Dicalite (maker not given)
Mining & General Technicians: Montasite
Mining & Milling Corp. of America: Mimco
Montello: Visbestos
National Gypsum: Gold Bond Asbestos Fibers
Nicolet: Asbestos Fibers
North American Asbestos: Caposite · Pluto
Oscar H. Reiter (importer): Tropag
Pacific Asbestos: Mother Lode
Philip Carey: Asbestos Fibers
Powhattan Mining: Portugese Asbestos · Powminco
Ruberoid: Asbestos Fibers
Turners Asbestos: Vra G3 · Vra G4
Unarco: Carded Crysotile
Union Carbide: Calidria RG 144 · Calidria RG 600
United States Mineral Wool: Usm Asbestos Fibers
Vermont Asbestos: Red Clover
The defenses companies raise, and how we answer them
The defendants in these cases lean on the same arguments case after case, and none is new to us. All of this applies only to the lawsuit side. Trust claims are a paper process: no opposing lawyer raises defenses, no one is deposed, and no one goes to court.
How we answer the defenses raised in drilling-mud and filler-fiber cases
"Industrial process exposure was marginal; your client wasn't an insulator or a bricklayer." The maker's own document answers this. Union Carbide's February 1973 internal report recorded up to 5.5 f/cc in the mud mixer's breathing zone1, measured by the company itself, during ordinary use of its own product. A task the manufacturer's hygienists found worth measuring, and that measured at those levels, was not marginal, and the mixer repeated it shift after shift.
"It was only chrysotile." Stated precisely: chrysotile is classified by the International Agency for Research on Cancer as a Group 1 carcinogen, the agency's highest certainty category, and it is a recognized cause of mesothelioma3. This category's products were essentially pure chrysotile, handled loose, and "only chrysotile" is not a defense to that record.
Frequently asked questions
My loved one has already passed away. Can we still bring a claim?
Yes. Families regularly file after a death, both trust claims and, depending on the state, a wrongful death lawsuit. Some of these deadlines are short, so it's best to call promptly. We handle wrongful death and estate claims as a matter of routine.
Could my family have been exposed through the work clothes?
Yes, and it's common with raw fiber. Dust from mixing settled on a worker's clothes and came home with him, and spouses who laundered the clothes were exposed too. Our representation includes free asbestos health screening for family members, and if one is later diagnosed, they may have a claim of their own. The screening is a chest X-ray read by a B-reader, with a CT scan if needed; it looks for asbestos-related changes in the lungs and isn't a diagnosis or a reliable way to find mesothelioma early.
The drilling company I worked for has been bought and sold several times. Does that matter?
It matters to us, not to you. Oil-field companies changed hands constantly, and tracing which successor answers for which years is a routine part of how we build these files. Start with the rigs and the years you remember, and we run down the corporate history.
I worked offshore. Does that change my claim?
It can, and usually in your favor. Offshore work can open maritime remedies, including the Jones Act for qualifying crew members, on top of the trust claims and lawsuits described above. We sort out which framework fits your service.
What does it cost to work with you?
Nothing up front, and nothing at all unless we recover for you. We work on a contingency fee, which means our fee comes only out of money we recover, and the case review is free.
What happens when I call?
A member of our litigation team, not a screener, takes the call, and the first conversation usually runs twenty to thirty minutes. We listen to the work history, explain which claims may apply, and lay out the timeline. No one is pressured to sign anything.
Do we have to travel to your office?
No. We handle these cases by phone, video, and mail, and we come to you when an in-person visit helps. Families work with us from every state without traveling to us.
Talk with an asbestos lawyer about drilling-mud and filler-fiber exposure
Whether you're a worker who was just diagnosed or a spouse or adult child trying to find help for someone who is sick, we're ready to talk. You don't need the brand off the sack, you don't need the old records, and you don't need to travel to us. Start with what you remember, and we'll take it from there.
Related resources
Sources and references
- Union Carbide Corporation. Internal industrial hygiene report on drilling-mud asbestos exposure; February 22, 1973.
- OSHA asbestos standard. 29 C.F.R. § 1910.1001.
- International Agency for Research on Cancer. Arsenic, Metals, Fibres, and Dusts. IARC Monographs, Vol. 100C.
This page is provided for general informational purposes and does not constitute legal advice. Every asbestos case turns on its own facts, exposure history, diagnosis, deadlines, available evidence, and applicable law. Reviewing this page does not create an attorney-client relationship. For advice about your specific situation, call 833-4-ASBESTOS for a free case review.