Members of the International Association of Bridge, Structural, Ornamental and Reinforcing Iron Workers (IW / IABSORIW) were allegedly the trade most-proximate to the following categories of asbestos-containing products across the asbestos era (roughly the mid-1950s through the 1973 EPA ban on spray-applied asbestos fireproofing, with adjacent product categories persisting later). Each category links to the corresponding manufacturer history and trust-fund eligibility documentation on AsbestosIndex (asbestos-products.com).
Sprayed asbestos fireproofing — the trade’s dominant exposure
The defining product category of the trade. From roughly the mid-1950s through the U.S. EPA’s 1973 ban on spray-applied asbestos fireproofing, virtually every commercial high-rise, industrial process plant, and government building constructed in the United States had its structural steel skeleton allegedly coated in sprayed asbestos fireproofing. IW members were the trade connected to the structural steel while the spray was being applied — plumbing-up columns, bolting up braces, welding moment connections, tacking floor deck, and tying rebar inside the active spray cloud. According to publicly filed asbestos litigation records, the historic suppliers to this market allegedly included:
- W.R. Grace Monokote MK-3 — sprayed asbestos fireproofing on commercial high-rise structural steel
- U.S. Mineral Products Cafco Blaze-Shield — sprayed asbestos fireproofing on commercial and industrial structural steel
- Asbestospray Limpet — spray-applied amosite fireproofing on structural steel
- Keasbey & Mattison Airfelt — sprayed asbestos fireproofing formulations
- Baldwin-Ehret-Hill Thermalux — spray-applied asbestos fireproofing
- Spraycraft — sprayed asbestos fireproofing on commercial structural steel
- National Gypsum Audicote — sprayed asbestos acoustical and fireproofing formulations
- CertainTeed sprayed fireproofing — competing sprayed asbestos formulations
All spray-applied asbestos fireproofing formulations were banned by U.S. EPA in 1973 and replaced across the 1970s and 1980s by mineral wool, cementitious, and intumescent asbestos-free formulations.
Sprayed fireproofing on AsbestosIndex →
Asbestos-cement roofing sheet + siding
Precast erector iron workers and structural iron workers allegedly set asbestos-cement corrugated roofing sheet, wall panels, and siding shingles on industrial buildings, commercial exteriors, cooling tower enclosures, and process structures across the era. Cutting sheet to length at the jobsite with power saws and shears allegedly aerosolized asbestos-cement dust directly into the worker’s breathing zone. According to publicly filed asbestos litigation records, the historic suppliers allegedly included:
| Product | Where used |
|---|---|
| CertainTeed Transite corrugated roofing sheet | Industrial building roofing |
| Bird Incorporated asbestos-cement siding shingles | Commercial and industrial siding |
| Johns-Manville Transite roofing | Industrial building roofing |
| Nicolet asbestos-cement panels | Industrial wall and roof panels |
Transite pipe + panel on AsbestosIndex →
Asbestos-refractory brick + castable — adjacent, encountered during steel mill construction
Structural iron workers and riggers on steel mill construction and rebuild allegedly worked directly adjacent to asbestos-refractory brick, castable, gunning mix, and monolithic linings during blast furnace, BOF, reheat furnace, and coke oven structural erection. The refractory was placed by the Bricklayers (BAC) — but iron workers erected and modified the structural steel that carried, contained, and framed those linings, allegedly working through overhead refractory dust and directly adjacent to freshly-installed asbestos-refractory materials. According to publicly filed asbestos litigation records, the historic suppliers allegedly included:
- Harbison-Walker Refractories — blast furnace, BOF, and reheat furnace refractory brick + castable
- NARCO (North American Refractories Company) — BOF hood castable + blast furnace refractory
- A.P. Green Refractories — ladle gunning mix + reheat furnace refractory
- Plibrico — coke oven monolithic refractory linings
- General Refractories — reheat furnace board + insulating refractory
Refractory brick on AsbestosIndex →
Marine bulkhead panels — Navy shipyard steel erection
Structural iron workers, ship fitters, and welders at the private and public naval shipyards allegedly erected steel bulkhead and deck plate directly adjacent to asbestos-cement marine bulkhead panels installed by the insulators in shipboard machinery spaces, magazines, and berthing compartments. Cutting and welding hull, bulkhead, and deck steel in enclosed shipboard spaces adjacent to Marinite and Aeroflex panels allegedly produced substantial in-space asbestos exposure. According to publicly filed asbestos litigation records, the historic suppliers allegedly included:
- Johns-Manville Marinite — asbestos-cement marine bulkhead + joiner panels on Navy combatants, submarines, and auxiliaries
- Owens-Corning marine Aeroflex — marine bulkhead and insulation panel
Asbestos-fabric welder-shop torch pads + burn hood curtains
Certified welders in the IW — structural welders under AWS D1.1 and D1.4, and reinforcing bar tackers — allegedly worked daily with asbestos-fabric torch pads, welding blankets, and burn hood curtains during steel connection welding, moment-connection weld-out, decking puddle-welding, and rebar tacking. Cutting an old structural member with a torch required draping the adjacent steel with an asbestos blanket to catch slag. The welder’s shop stockroom allegedly kept asbestos gloves, asbestos aprons, asbestos leg shields, and asbestos welding curtains across the era.
Cross-links — full product histories on AsbestosIndex
- Sprayed fireproofing — W.R. Grace Monokote, Cafco Blaze-Shield, Asbestospray Limpet, and competing sprayed asbestos formulations
- Transite pipe + panel — Johns-Manville, CertainTeed, and Nicolet asbestos-cement products
- Refractory brick — Harbison-Walker, NARCO, A.P. Green, Plibrico, General Refractories
- Marinite — Johns-Manville marine bulkhead panels
- Structural steel — asbestos-adjacent structural-erection product tree
- Asbestos-cement siding — Bird Incorporated and competing suppliers
- Welder-shop asbestos — asbestos-fabric torch pads, welding blankets, gloves, and curtains
Manufacturer trust funds applicable to IW iron worker claims
Many of the manufacturers that supplied the products above are now defunct, having filed for bankruptcy under the weight of asbestos litigation. Their bankruptcy estates funded asbestos trust funds — currently holding more than $30 billion — that pay claims to workers and families with documented exposure to their products. IW-relevant trusts allegedly include the W.R. Grace trust (Monokote sprayed fireproofing), the U.S. Mineral Products / Cafco trust (Blaze-Shield sprayed fireproofing), the Keasbey & Mattison trust, the Johns-Manville trust (Marinite marine bulkhead panels and Transite asbestos-cement products), the Owens-Corning / Fibreboard trust, the National Gypsum trust, the Harbison-Walker Refractories trust (steel mill refractory), the NARCO trust (BOF hood castable), the A.P. Green trust (refractory brick + gunning), and the Plibrico trust (coke oven monolithic refractory), among others.
See Trust Funds for the full list of applicable trusts.
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