Michigan Asbestos Exposure Sites: Worksites, Industries, and Trust Coverage

Auto plants. Auto plants ran their own powerhouses, paint ovens, heat-treating furnaces, and foundries, all insulated and lined with asbestos, and the millwrights, pipefitters, and electricians who kept the lines running worked around it every shift.

• Ford Motor Co
• Kelsey Hayes

Power plants and utilities. Power plants' boilers, turbines, and high-pressure steam lines were insulated, lined, and sealed with asbestos products, and every overhaul released dust across the plant.

• Detroit Edison Conners Creek plant
• Detroit Edison Detroit heating plants and warehouses

Refineries and petrochemical plants. Refineries ran on heat: crude heaters, cat crackers, boilers, and miles of steam and process piping, all insulated, lined, and sealed with asbestos products into the late 1970s. Insulators, pipefitters, boilermakers, and the contract crews who worked turnarounds carried the heaviest exposure.

• Marathon Oil Detroit refinery

Auto plants. Auto plants ran their own powerhouses, paint ovens, heat-treating furnaces, and foundries, all insulated and lined with asbestos, and the millwrights, pipefitters, and electricians who kept the lines running worked around it every shift.

• Ford Motor Company Dearborn offices, laboratories and power houses
• Ford River Rouge complex

Chemical plants. Chemical plants combined high heat with corrosive service: furnaces and reactors lined with asbestos refractory, steam lines wrapped in asbestos insulation, and acid-resistant asbestos gaskets and packing at every flange.

• Dow Chemical Midland plant
• Dow Corning Co

Auto plants. Auto plants ran their own powerhouses, paint ovens, heat-treating furnaces, and foundries, all insulated and lined with asbestos, and the millwrights, pipefitters, and electricians who kept the lines running worked around it every shift.

• General Motors Saginaw grey iron foundry (Chevrolet; Saginaw Metal Casting)
• Saginaw Steering Gear (Delphi Saginaw Steering Systems)

Steel, metals, and metalworking. Steel mills, foundries, tool works, and aluminum plants used asbestos wherever metal was melted, poured, or heat-treated: refractory brick and cement, insulation on furnaces and ladles, and asbestos protective clothing.

• McLouth Steel Trenton works

Power plants and utilities. Power plants' boilers, turbines, and high-pressure steam lines were insulated, lined, and sealed with asbestos products, and every overhaul released dust across the plant.

• Detroit Edison Trenton Channel plant

Power plants and utilities. Power plants' boilers, turbines, and high-pressure steam lines were insulated, lined, and sealed with asbestos products, and every overhaul released dust across the plant.

• Consumers Power J.R. Whiting plant — Erie
• Consumers Power Karn and Weadock plants — Essexville
• Detroit Edison Monroe plant — Monroe
• Detroit Edison St. Clair and Belle River plants — East China Township

Auto plants. Auto plants ran their own powerhouses, paint ovens, heat-treating furnaces, and foundries, all insulated and lined with asbestos, and the millwrights, pipefitters, and electricians who kept the lines running worked around it every shift.

• Chrysler Highland Park plant and headquarters — Highland Park
• General Motors — Flint
• General Motors — Pontiac

Mines and ore mills. Mines and ore mills ran powerhouses, boilers, compressors, and steam lines insulated and sealed with asbestos, and their mills and smelters used asbestos refractory.

• Calumet and Hecla copper mines — Calumet
• Cleveland-Cliffs iron mines (Tilden) — Ishpeming
• White Pine copper mine — White Pine

Paper mills and manufacturing plants. Paper mills, glass plants, lumber mills, and factories ran their own boilers and steam systems, insulated with asbestos pipe covering and sealed with asbestos gaskets. A paper mill's recovery boilers were among the most asbestos-intensive equipment anywhere.

• Mead Escanaba paper mill (Escanaba Paper) — Escanaba
• S.D. Warren paper mill — Muskegon

Chemical plants. Chemical plants combined high heat with corrosive service: furnaces and reactors lined with asbestos refractory, steam lines wrapped in asbestos insulation, and acid-resistant asbestos gaskets and packing at every flange.

• Wyandotte Chemicals (BASF Wyandotte) — Wyandotte

Steel, metals, and metalworking. Steel mills, foundries, tool works, and aluminum plants used asbestos wherever metal was melted, poured, or heat-treated: refractory brick and cement, insulation on furnaces and ladles, and asbestos protective clothing.

• Great Lakes Steel (Great Lakes Works and Zug Island) — Ecorse

Shipyards. Ships' boilers, engine rooms, and steam lines were insulated with asbestos, much of it to Navy specification, and shipyard workers in tight spaces breathed the dust whether or not they handled it themselves.

• Defoe Shipbuilding — Bay City

Great Lakes Steel, for most of the twentieth century the Detroit-area division of National Steel Corporation, ran an integrated steel mill on the Detroit River at Ecorse and River Rouge, with its blast furnaces and coke ovens on Zug Island, and supplied steel to the auto industry. U.S. Steel acquired the works in 2003 with the rest of National Steel's assets and runs it as Great Lakes Works. The trusts list it under Great Lakes Steel, National Steel, Michigan Steel, and U.S. Steel, filed under Ecorse, River Rouge, Zug Island, and Detroit; it is one complex.

Workers exposed. Integrated steelmaking of this scale required millwrights, boilermakers, pipefitters, refractory workers (bricklayers and hot-side mechanics), insulators, electricians, mechanics, riggers, crane operators, coke oven and furnace operators, and the broader skilled trades. Refractory and insulation work ran continuously across blast furnace campaigns, coke battery repairs, furnace relines, and rolling mill maintenance.

Trust documentation: recognized by at least 16 asbestos trusts — A-Best, A.P. Green, Armstrong World Industries, Babcock & Wilcox, Combustion Engineering, DII Industries (Halliburton), DII Industries (Harbison-Walker), Eagle-Picher, Fibreboard, Kaiser Aluminum, NARCO, Owens Corning, Owens-Illinois, Plibrico, Raytech, and Johns-Manville. The trusts' lists document their products here from 1930 through 1984.

Products, trust signatures, and asbestos types. A.P. Green, Harbison-Walker, Kaiser, NARCO, and Plibrico refractory lined the blast furnaces, coke ovens, steelmaking furnaces, soaking pits, reheat furnaces, and ladles, cut, mixed, and chipped out across every maintenance cycle. Babcock & Wilcox and Combustion Engineering boilers ran the mill's steam plants, with pipe and block insulation and gaskets and packing on every steam connection. Because the Owens-Illinois trust signature is present, Owens-Illinois Kaylo high-temperature pipe insulation, an amosite (brown asbestos) product, was used at this site during the 1948–1958 manufacturing window, with Owens Corning continuing the Kaylo line afterward; Fibreboard and Armstrong supplied more pipe insulation, finished with Eagle-Picher insulating cement. Raytech friction products lined the brakes and clutches of the overhead cranes, A-Best supplied asbestos safety clothing for furnace work, and the Halliburton signature reflects pumps and compressors from Ingersoll, Dresser, Pacific, and Worthington. Chrysotile (white asbestos) ran through most of these product categories.

Henry Ford began building the Rouge complex on the Rouge River in Dearborn in 1917, and by the end of the 1920s it was the largest industrial complex in the world: ore, coal, and sand came in by boat and rail at one end, and finished cars left the other, with blast furnaces, a steel mill, a glass plant, a foundry, an engine plant, stamping and assembly plants, and its own power plant in between. The trusts list it under Ford Motor and Ford Rouge, and under its Dearborn Assembly, Dearborn Engine, Dearborn Iron Foundry, Dearborn Glass, slabbing mill, and Steel Division; they list Ford's Dearborn headquarters, engineering buildings, and outlying power houses separately.

Workers exposed. The Rouge required the full range of industrial trades — millwrights, boilermakers, pipefitters, insulators, refractory workers, foundry and furnace workers, glassworkers, mechanics, electricians, ironworkers, and assembly line workers — across an operation that ran from iron ore to finished vehicles.

Trust documentation: recognized by at least 12 asbestos trusts — A.P. Green, Babcock & Wilcox, Combustion Engineering, DII Industries (Halliburton), DII Industries (Harbison-Walker), Eagle-Picher, Fibreboard, GAF, Kaiser Aluminum, NARCO, Owens Corning, and Johns-Manville. The trusts' lists document their products here from 1919 through 1982.

Products, trust signatures, and asbestos types. A.P. Green, Harbison-Walker, Kaiser, and NARCO refractory lined the blast furnaces, steelmaking furnaces, foundry cupolas, glass furnaces, and ladles. Babcock & Wilcox and Combustion Engineering boilers in the Rouge powerhouse supplied steam and electricity to the whole complex, with pipe and block insulation and gaskets and packing on every steam connection. Owens Corning's Kaylo line, its high-temperature grades made with amosite (brown asbestos), and Fibreboard pipe insulation covered the steam and process piping, finished with Eagle-Picher insulating cement. The Halliburton signature reflects pumps and compressors from Ingersoll, Dresser, Pacific, and Worthington, and GAF documentation points to roofing felts and mastics on the plant buildings. Chrysotile (white asbestos) ran through most of these product categories.

Herbert Henry Dow founded the Dow Chemical Company at Midland in 1897 to draw chemicals from the brine beneath the town, and the Midland plant has been the company's home and largest complex ever since, producing industrial chemicals, plastics, and agricultural and consumer products. The trusts list it under Dow Chemical and the Midland plant, often by building number; they list Dow Corning, a separate company, separately.

Workers exposed. Integrated chemical manufacturing at Midland's scale required pipefitters, insulators, boilermakers, refractory workers, millwrights, instrument technicians, electricians, mechanics, and operators across reactor units, distillation columns, heat exchangers, and the supporting steam and utility systems.

Trust documentation: recognized by at least 12 asbestos trusts — A.P. Green, Armstrong World Industries, Babcock & Wilcox, Combustion Engineering, Eagle-Picher, Fibreboard, GAF, Kaiser Aluminum, Owens Corning, Owens-Illinois, Pittsburgh Corning, and Johns-Manville. The trusts' lists document their products here from 1940 through 1982.

Products, trust signatures, and asbestos types. A.P. Green and Kaiser refractory lined the reactors, furnaces, and process heaters. Babcock & Wilcox and Combustion Engineering boilers supplied the plant's process steam, with pipe and block insulation and gaskets and packing at every connection. Because the Owens-Illinois trust signature is present, Owens-Illinois Kaylo high-temperature pipe insulation, an amosite (brown asbestos) product, was used at this site during the 1948–1958 manufacturing window, with Owens Corning continuing the Kaylo line afterward and Pittsburgh Corning's amosite-rich Unibestos on the hottest lines; Fibreboard and Armstrong supplied more pipe insulation, finished with Eagle-Picher insulating cement. GAF documentation points to roofing felts and mastics on the plant buildings. Chrysotile (white asbestos) ran through most of these product categories, and crocidolite (blue asbestos) appeared in the acid- and caustic-service gaskets and packing.

Wyandotte Chemicals grew from the Michigan Alkali Company, which John B. Ford founded at Wyandotte in the 1890s to make soda ash from the salt beds beneath the Downriver shore. BASF acquired the company in 1969, and the works continued as BASF Wyandotte. The trusts list it under Wyandotte Chemical, Wyandotte Chemicals, and BASF, including its North and South works and the powerhouses Detroit Edison ran there.

Workers exposed. Chemical manufacturing at Wyandotte required pipefitters, insulators, boilermakers, refractory workers, millwrights, mechanics, and operators across reactor units, kilns, evaporators, and the supporting steam and utility systems.

Trust documentation: recognized by at least 11 asbestos trusts — A.P. Green, ABB Lummus, ACandS, Armstrong World Industries, Babcock & Wilcox, DII Industries (Harbison-Walker), Fibreboard, GAF, Owens Corning, Owens-Illinois, and Johns-Manville. The trusts' lists document their products here from 1930 through 1982.

Products, trust signatures, and asbestos types. A.P. Green and Harbison-Walker refractory lined the kilns, furnaces, and process heaters. Babcock & Wilcox boilers in the works' powerhouses supplied process steam, with pipe and block insulation and gaskets and packing on every connection. Because the Owens-Illinois trust signature is present, Owens-Illinois Kaylo high-temperature pipe insulation, an amosite (brown asbestos) product, was used at this site during the 1948–1958 manufacturing window, with Owens Corning continuing the Kaylo line afterward and Fibreboard supplying more pipe insulation, much of it applied by ACandS and Armstrong insulation crews. ABB Lummus did chemical-plant engineering and construction, and GAF documentation points to roofing felts and mastics on the plant buildings. Chrysotile (white asbestos) ran through most of these product categories, and crocidolite (blue asbestos) appeared in the acid- and caustic-service gaskets and packing.

Chevrolet's Saginaw Grey Iron Foundry cast engine blocks and other iron parts for General Motors for most of the twentieth century; GM later ran it as Saginaw Metal Casting Operations. The trusts list it under General Motors Grey Iron Foundry, Chevrolet Saginaw Grey Iron Foundry, and Saginaw Metal Cast Iron; they list GM's other Saginaw plants, including Saginaw Steering Gear, separately.

Workers exposed. Foundry work required cupola and furnace tenders, molders, coremakers, pourers, shakeout and cleaning-room workers, refractory bricklayers, millwrights, pipefitters, maintenance mechanics, and electricians, many of them working beside molten iron every shift.

Trust documentation: recognized by at least 9 asbestos trusts — A.P. Green, Combustion Engineering, Eagle-Picher, Fibreboard, NARCO, Owens Corning, Pittsburgh Corning, U.S. Gypsum, and Johns-Manville. The trusts' lists document their products here from 1934 through 1982.

Products, trust signatures, and asbestos types. A.P. Green and NARCO refractory lined the cupolas, holding furnaces, and ladles, and was patched and relined across every maintenance cycle. Combustion Engineering boilers supplied the foundry's steam, with pipe and block insulation and gaskets and packing on its connections. Pittsburgh Corning's Unibestos and Owens Corning's Kaylo line, both high-temperature pipe insulations made with amosite (brown asbestos), covered the hottest lines, with Fibreboard pipe insulation and Eagle-Picher insulating cement on the rest. U.S. Gypsum documentation points to joint compound and plaster in the plant buildings. Chrysotile (white asbestos) ran through most of these product categories.

McLouth Steel's Trenton works on the Detroit River supplied flat-rolled steel to the auto industry, and in 1954 it became the first American steel mill to make steel in basic oxygen furnaces. The trusts list it under McLouth Steel and the misspelling McClouth Steel, including its air separation plant and rolling mill; they list McLouth's Gibraltar plant and its Detroit-filed rows separately.

Workers exposed. Integrated steel trades — furnace and melt shop crews, refractory bricklayers, rolling mill workers, boilermakers, pipefitters, insulators, millwrights, crane operators, mechanics, and electricians.

Trust documentation: recognized by at least 9 asbestos trusts — A-Best, A.P. Green, Babcock & Wilcox, Combustion Engineering, Fibreboard, NARCO, Owens Corning, Owens-Illinois, and Johns-Manville. The trusts' lists document their products here from 1954 through 1984.

Products, trust signatures, and asbestos types. A.P. Green and NARCO refractory lined the oxygen furnaces, ladles, soaking pits, and reheat furnaces. Babcock & Wilcox and Combustion Engineering boilers ran the mill's steam plant, with pipe and block insulation and gaskets and packing throughout. Because the Owens-Illinois trust signature is present, Owens-Illinois Kaylo high-temperature pipe insulation, an amosite (brown asbestos) product, was used at this site during the 1948–1958 manufacturing window, with Owens Corning continuing the Kaylo line afterward and Fibreboard supplying more pipe insulation. A-Best supplied asbestos safety clothing for work at the furnaces. Chrysotile (white asbestos) ran through most of these product categories.

Copper Range Company opened the White Pine mine in Ontonagon County in the early 1950s, with its own mill, smelter, and power plant beside the mine. The trusts list it under White Pine Copper, Copper Range, and the White Pine powerhouse, with two entries filed under nearby Bergland; it is one operation.

Workers exposed. Miners, mill and smelter workers, furnace and refractory crews, powerhouse operators, boilermakers, pipefitters, insulators, millwrights, mechanics, and electricians.

Trust documentation: recognized by at least 9 asbestos trusts — A.P. Green, Babcock & Wilcox, Eagle-Picher, Fibreboard, Owens Corning, Owens-Illinois, Plibrico, Western Asbestos, and Johns-Manville. The trusts' lists document their products here from 1953 through 1982.

Products, trust signatures, and asbestos types. A.P. Green and Plibrico refractory lined the smelter's furnaces and converters, rammed and patched by hand. Babcock & Wilcox boilers ran the mine's powerhouse, with pipe and block insulation and gaskets and packing on its steam connections. Because the Owens-Illinois trust signature is present, Owens-Illinois Kaylo high-temperature pipe insulation, an amosite (brown asbestos) product, was used at this site during the 1948–1958 manufacturing window, with Owens Corning continuing the Kaylo line afterward and Fibreboard supplying more pipe insulation, finished with Eagle-Picher insulating cement; the Western Asbestos signature reflects insulation contracting. Chrysotile (white asbestos) ran through most of these product categories.

Defoe Shipbuilding built vessels at Bay City on the Saginaw River, including patrol craft and destroyer escorts for the Navy in World War II, until the yard closed in 1976. The trusts list it under Defoe Shipbuilding and Defoe Shipyard; it is one yard.

Workers exposed. Shipfitters, pipefitters, insulators, boilermakers, welders, machinists, electricians, and laborers worked in the tight engine and boiler rooms of ships under construction, breathing the dust of insulation they did not handle themselves.

Trust documentation: recognized by at least 8 asbestos trusts — Babcock & Wilcox, Combustion Engineering, Eagle-Picher, Fibreboard, NARCO, Owens Corning, Pittsburgh Corning, and Johns-Manville. The trusts' lists document their products here from 1940 through 1982.

Products, trust signatures, and asbestos types. Babcock & Wilcox and Combustion Engineering boilers went into the ships' engine rooms, with NARCO refractory in their furnaces and gaskets and packing on every steam connection. Pittsburgh Corning's Unibestos and Owens Corning's Kaylo line, both high-temperature pipe insulations made with amosite (brown asbestos), covered the steam lines, as Navy specifications called for, with Fibreboard pipe and block insulation and Eagle-Picher insulating cement on the rest. Chrysotile (white asbestos) ran through most of these product categories.

Detroit Edison built the Monroe plant on Lake Erie in the early 1970s; it is one of the largest coal-fired power plants in the United States and is now run by DTE Energy. The trusts list it under Detroit Edison, the Monroe Power Plant, and the Monroe Station.

Workers exposed. Utility-scale coal-fired generation required boilermakers, pipefitters, insulators, refractory workers, millwrights, mechanics, and electricians across boilers, turbines, condensers, and the supporting plant equipment, with large contractor crews during construction and every major outage.

Trust documentation: recognized by at least 8 asbestos trusts — ACandS, Armstrong World Industries, Babcock & Wilcox, Eagle-Picher, Fibreboard, Owens Corning, Pittsburgh Corning, and Johns-Manville. The trusts' lists document their products here from 1949 through 1982.

Products, trust signatures, and asbestos types. The Babcock & Wilcox signature reflects the station's boilers, with their pipe and block insulation, refractory, and gaskets and packing on access doors and steam connections. Pittsburgh Corning's Unibestos and Owens Corning's Kaylo line, both high-temperature pipe insulations made with amosite (brown asbestos), covered the main steam and turbine piping, with Fibreboard pipe insulation and Eagle-Picher insulating cement on the rest; the ACandS and Armstrong signatures point to the insulation contracting crews who installed it. Chrysotile (white asbestos) ran through most of these product categories.