Consolidated Edison Powerhouse
Consolidated Edison, Inc. (more commonly known as Con Ed) has been one of the largest energy companies in the United States for decades. The company was founded in New York City in the early part of the 19th century when the city was lit by gas lamps. Over the next 100 years, Con Ed bought or merged with other power companies until it created an energy monopoly in that part of the country.
The company recieved its current name in 1936 when it purchased a power company that had been founded by Thomas Edison. Since then, Con Ed has continued to expand. Although in 1999 a public utilities commission ordered the company to sell off some of its holdings, Con Ed remains an industry giant. Two of the assets the company was forced to sell in 1999 were the Arthur Kill powerhouse on Staten Island and the Astoria power house in Queens, which supplied power, natural gas, and steam to millions in the New York metropolitan area and had been two of Con Ed's largest powerhouses.
Power generating plants, such as the ones operated by Consolidated Edison, required special insulation due to the high temperatures often generated in the plants. Asbestos was the favored material due to its strength, flexibility, and extreme resistance to heat and fire. Asbestos was used as insulation, and as lining or covering for pipes, furnaces, pumps, turbines, heaters, and other components. Much of the safety clothes worn by workers was even made out of asbestos.
For decades, workers at power plants were at risk of exposure to loose asbestos fibers in the air. These fibers would be inhaled and lodge in the lungs, where over time they could build up and cause scarring and inflammation. Workers are at risk of developing breathing problems and diseases such as asbestosis and mesothelioma.
In some cases, the general public was also in danger from industrial asbestos. In 1989, Con Ed scrambled to put a program in place to remove asbestos from every steam manhole in New York City, after a steam pipe explosion underground shattered hundreds of windows and sent asbestos-covered mud over a wide area.
In 1996, a Con Ed steam plant on the upper east side of Manhattan exploded. Everyone within one block was evacuated due to concerns of asbestos being in the air. Fortunately, air and debris samples from later in the day showed that apparently no asbestos had escaped from the building in the explosion. Not far from the site of the steam plant explosion, workers doing routine maintenance punctured a steam pipe, sending debris onto the sidewalk and street nearby. Once again, the area had to be closed off while testing was done for asbestos.
In 2003, a New York judge awarded a former Con Ed boilermaker with just months to live $47 million in damages. The man was dying from mesothelioma, and charged that he had developed disease after working at various Con Ed plants in the 1960s and 1970s.
