For decades, asbestos was known as a “miracle fiber,” prized for its high tensile strength and remarkable resistance to heat and friction.
Thanks to these properties, asbestos has been used in most of the equipment in power plants and the buildings that house them.
Because the power plants constructed before 1980 were without any controls, they were using asbestos in increasingly larger amounts. Now the turbines are a tomb of asbestos. There was no way anyone could avoid being exposed at one time or another.
Consequently, power plant workers exposed to deadly asbestos fibers have developed a variety of respiratory and other diseases such as mesothelioma, asbestosis, lung cancer, or ovarian cancer.
How Asbestos Was Used at Power Plants
Generally, the function of asbestos was to keep the power plant machinery from overheating. It was also included with equipment to extend its life and decrease or eliminate corrosion.
The parts that make up a power plant generator, which generates the electricity consist of boilers and turbines. When they work these produce very strong heat, both dangerous to workers as well as the machines themselves.
For this reason, asbestos-containing thermal insulations were harvested in wires, pipes, steam turbines, and other areas of the machinery.
- Pipe Lagging
- Fire Resistant
- Heat Insulation
- Electrical Asbestos Insulation
- Protective Gear
- Boiler
Because it does not burn and can be produced through special processes of manufacturing, asbestos is also used in such thermal protective (insulating) clothing for power plant workers as daily wear or gear to be worn when fighting fires.
What Years of Unregulated Asbestos Look Like
Below is a timeline of asbestos exposure and mesothelioma:
- Mid-1850s asbestos first came into commercial use.
- In 1918 the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released a report on the abnormally high rate of early death associated with asbestos workers.
- 1920s Drs. Ernest S. Du Bray and F.B. Rosson first used the term “primary mesothelioma of the pleura” to describe pleural mesothelioma tumors.
- 1930 the first clinical examinations of asbestos workers published that 25 percent of these employees were afflicted with asbestosis.
- 1933 the first case of asbestosis affecting a U.S. worker occurred.
- 1935 companies like General Motors and Johns-Manville were already inspiring on how to manage the liabilities associated with exposing their workforce to harmful asbestos.
The danger of asbestos exposure dates back as early as ancient times, with Greeks documenting its harmful effects as “sickness in the lungs” among slaves who wove asbestos fiber into clothes.
Roman historian and philosopher Pliny the Elder once said that asbestos was dangerous for slaves to breathe. If they needed a respirator at all, miners must use a fine mesh around the opening where it fits over their mouth to hold out those lung-harmful little asbestos fibers.
Most asbestos products are no longer for sale in the U.S., following strict regulations and enforcement by both the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Occupational Health Administration (OSHA).
But it wasn’t until the government took notice of research findings as early as the mid-19th century, which found unusual numbers of workers of companies that use asbestos dying from lung diseases at a young age, passed regulation laws.
Before this, there is rampant use of asbestos in power plants. Companies also failed to inform their workers about the dangers of occupational risks of asbestos, leading to one of the largest class-action lawsuits in the U.S.
How Plant Workers Are Exposed To Asbestos
Asbestos, as it ages, begins to crumble and is released as airborne fibers and is inhaled by power plant workers, especially in closed room settings.
For many years, a power plant worker in the United States would use pants, coats, aprons, mitts, and masks containing asbestos.
Insulation workers in power plants were among those at high risk of inhaling asbestos dust. During maintenance and repairs, power plant workers would cut into through asbestos insulations, releasing harmful fibers that are tinier than splits of human hair and even fiberglass.
These minute fibers are not visible, stay in the air for a prolonged time, have no detectable odor, and when inhaled or ingested can lodge deep into the lungs, heart, and abdomen, causing asbestos-related diseases.
Many power plant workers have developed mesothelioma and lung cancer from airborne asbestos. Owing to its high latency period, asbestos victims who developed the deadly disease can only start feeling the symptoms 10 to 50 years after exposure.
In layman’s terms, this means that the scarring and inflammation of the mesothelium can go on for decades before any symptoms are detected by the victim.
What Studies Say About Asbestos Exposure in Power Plants
Several studies have been conducted to prove the occupational risks associated with asbestos exposure among power plant workers.
A 1990 study by the British Journal of Industrial Magazine revealed that while there were low counts of asbestos fibers in the air inside and outside of power stations, there were higher concentrations in storerooms where asbestos is handled.
“The asbestos-related health risk in power plants was also confirmed by the presence of ferruginous bodies in the sputum of power station workers,” it added.
Another study of exposure to airborne asbestos in thermal power plants in Mongolia revealed that the asbestos fiber concentrations were 10 times higher than the United States OSHA permissible exposure limits.
Unlike the US, Mongolia’s power plant workers are at high risk of developing asbestos-related illnesses due to limited regulations.
“The results of this study indicate that Mongolian insulation workers at TPPs are at an elevated risk of asbestos-related disease. In an accompanying paper, we have for the first time reported a case of mesothelioma arising in a long-term worker in a Mongolian power plant,” the study said.
Which Power Plants Have the Highest Risks for Asbestos Exposure?
When determining the risk of a power plant, two factors must be considered: the power generation process the machinery used, and the age of the plant.
Power plants that were built before the government imposed asbestos regulations in the early 1980s are at high risk for asbestos presence. The buildings and the machinery are most likely to contain asbestos for durability.
The power generation process, meanwhile, that uses steam turbines is most likely to contain asbestos insulations and pipe laggings.
Given these factors, fossil fuel power plants like nuclear and coal plants are more at risk compared to other power stations.
Are These High-Risk Power Plants Still Operational?
While the government has made rules for the removal of asbestos in power plants, again needs to be clarified: which of these high-risk power plants are still operational? This will help determine responsibility for asbestos exposure suffered by workers in past power plants.
The latest data show that there are 94 nuclear reactors in 56 nuclear plants in 28 states in the U.S. The oldest nuclear plant was built in 1969.
A 2016 article published by the Energy Information Agency (EIA) said most of the nuclear power stations were built between 1970 and 1990, with a capacity-weighted average age of 37 years. During that time, 95 of the 99 gigawatts of nuclear capacity of the operating nuclear plants were commissioned between 1970 and 1990.
Data obtained by Mesowatch showed at least 33 nuclear reactors that started construction in the 1960s, and at least 53 that were in the 1970s are still operational as of 2024.
