Asbestos Found in Cooling Towers

Much has been written about asbestos exposure from materials used in the building industry and shipyards. Another avenue that turned out to have similar deadly effects was the power plant. If you worked in a hydroelectric, nuclear, or any other type of power plant, you may have been inadvertently exposed to asbestos. Since the early years of the 20th century, power plants used asbestos in wall coatings, fittings, laggings, and insulation; asbestos was also used in power plants for cooling towers.

Asbestos has excellent non-conductive and heat-resistant properties; so it was used as fill in constructing cooling towers that were used to extract waste heat to the atmosphere by passing heated air through a water stream before releasing it. The EPA banned the use of asbestos in 1980s, and since then, cooling towers that used asbestos fill are being removed or designed and even substituted with non-asbestos containing cooling towers.

Asbestos Exposure from Cooling Towers

The asbestos in cooling towers would disintegrate over years of use and release asbestos fibers into the air or get dissolved into the water that would again release asbestos fibers into the air in the form of steam. When inhaled, some fibers lodge in the linings of the vital organs and cause irritation that leads to inflammation. A prolonged gestation period ends in symptoms that eventually spell malignancy. The disease has no known cure and mesothelioma doctors simply adopt a palliative approach. So it is imperative that asbestos be removed from our midst. But dismantling a cooling tower or destroying it poses the same risk of releasing dust from the asbestos fill into the air and endangering the workers engaged in the demolition the most. There are professionals who do the job with care and minimal risk of exposure by following the EPA guidelines strictly.

Cooling Towers Containing Asbestos Fibers

Scientists and health officials talked of the potential dangers of asbestos in the 1970s, while the first adverse reports had actually surfaced as early as 1930s. But people with vested interests concealed facts and continued to use it for many years to follow. Legislation was put in place to ban new products from containing asbestos. But the harm was done, and a very large number of deaths attest to the historical use of the deadly material. In the U.S. alone, more than 10,000 Americans die each year as the result of asbestos exposure related conditions. Thousands of asbestos-related disease victims choose to file claims against manufacturers of asbestos products to obtain compensation for their misfortune and suffering or for those of their loved ones. The effects of asbestos use will continue to be felt up to 2030, according to a conservative estimate.