Railroad Workers
For many decades, rail travel was the way to go when you wanted to get from one place to another. Trains were luxurious and the travelers who rode them were pampered with the best the railroad companies had to offer, from posh cars to good food to top-notch service. And though the days of rail travel have greatly diminished since the middle of the 20th century, largely due to the innovation of the airplane, trains are still important to American life. Many people still ride trains to work or to vacation destinations, and products that are too large or dangerous to transport any other way are still carried from place to place on today's railroad lines.
Of course, neither cargo nor passenger trains could operate without the help of those who build and maintain them. These individuals - our nation's railroad workers - keep train traffic moving and see to it that travel by train is still safe and efficient.
Railroad Workers and Asbestos
Simply consider the term "steam engine" and it's easy to recognize that railroads have always generated lots of heat and may be potential fire hazards. The same is true of the diesel trains that followed. Because of this extreme production of heat, asbestos was used extensively inside railroad cars for many, many years.
Experts will point out that - at one point - the majority of surfaces in a train were covered with some sort of asbestos insulation. That included boilers, fireboxes, brake linings and clutches, and more.
Asbestos-containing insulation wasn't only found in the engine, though that's where most of it was located. It also lined boxcars and cabooses and was a covering for wallboard, used to reduce the chance of fire. Those who built or maintained engines and railroad cars may have also encountered asbestos in sealing cement and gaskets, which were used to seal pipe joints and valves.
Those who repaired trains were usually at the highest risk for encountering dangerous asbestos. They often removed insulation to insure that train parts - like the brakes - were in good working condition. During that process, old insulation might have been damaged or ripped off carelessly, causing airborne fibers to be distributed through the atmosphere. In addition, re-application or re-sizing of insulation may have necessitated the cutting or sawing of the material, releasing yet more toxic asbestos dust.
Railroad workers of old almost never wore masks or any other kind of protective clothing. For that reason, they were quite susceptible to inhaling the hazardous particles and, because of that, many have been diagnosed with asbestos-caused diseases decades later.
Last modified: December 17 2007.
