Asbestos Exposure for Maintenance Workers

Description of Maintenance Work

Maintenance work involves keeping buildings, equipment and facilities in working order by performing routine inspections, precautionary tasks, and repairs on systems and parts such as electrical, heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC), plumbing, flooring, and appliances (refrigerators and ovens). They also perform tasks such as painting, carpentry, and electrical work and general upkeep.

Many maintenance tasks involve responding to requests from occupants, including homeowners, home or apartment tenants, other home residents, office workers, and other staff or occupants. Maintenance workers often must dig into walls and floors and fix malfunctioning equipment or appliances in tight spaces.

Asbestos Risks in Buildings Needing Maintenance

Asbestos, a natural mineral found in the earth’s soil, was a prominent addition to building construction during the 20th century. Builders valued asbestos for its heat resistance, durability and affordability.

Many types of buildings in communities – homes, offices, hospitals, schools and more – were built with asbestos. See Mesothelioma Guide’s Asbestos in Your Town map for all the places and types of buildings asbestos could be lurking even today.

Asbestos can protect electrical wiring, electrical sockets, boilers, switchboards, flooring, roof tiles, shingles, siding, insulation, and appliances such as toaster ovens from heat damage and other environmental factors. Up to the 1980s, builders bought and used asbestos in homes, offices, schools and more.

The issue for maintenance workers is that a lot of their duties involve fixing these building parts. During the 20th century, and even today, maintenance workers could be exposed to asbestos when repairing or replacing electrical wiring, roof tiles, floor boards and more.

Maintenance Work in Chemical Plants and Refineries

Maintenance crews are often the largest group of employees in chemical plants and oil refineries. Even if they are not employed directly by the plant or refinery, they are a contractor with a lengthy contract, which means they spend a considerable amount of time in the work settings.

During the 20th century, chemical plants and oil refineries were filled with asbestos. The heat present in these work settings – from equipment running or the general process of creating chemicals – lent to the use of asbestos, which protects against heat.

Maintenance workers in plants and refineries replaced gaskets on valves, packing on pumps, and more tasks that could disturb asbestos or involve adding asbestos to machinery.

If the plant or refinery shut down, then tradespeople such as pipefitters or insulators were hired for fixes that could also involve handling asbestos.

How Were Maintenance Workers Exposed to Asbestos?

Occupational asbestos exposure is exposure that occurs during work or on a work site. Most past asbestos exposure occurred during the 20th century, which is when asbestos was most popular as an additive in buildings.

For maintenance workers, their work exposure occurred when repairing or replacing building parts that contained asbestos:

Asbestos is only dangerous when disturbed. The mineral is usually added as a compact and sturdy substance. However, asbestos is made of tiny fibers woven together like a blanket. When maintenance workers performed tasks, they could disturb asbestos and cause the fibers to break apart. This is when asbestos becomes dangerous.

Maintenance tasks such as cutting, repairing, removing, and replacing materials containing asbestos could disturb and release these dangerous fibers into the air. Since the maintenance workers were usually in close proximity to the building parts – and often in enclosed spaces – they could easily inhale or ingest the fibers.

Asbestos Exposure for Maintenance Workers Today

Asbestos exposure for maintenance workers is not limited to the past. Even today, maintenance workers can be exposed to asbestos when working in old buildings.

Homes, offices, schools, plants, refineries and other property constructed during the 20th century may still contain asbestos. Many buildings, especially schools, have not gone through major updates or renovations to remove asbestos materials. Cutting, repairing, removing, or replacing wires, floor tiles, pipes, gaskets, and insulation can disturb asbestos.

The presence of asbestos in old buildings is called legacy asbestos. These asbestos materials are often 40, 50, or even 60 years old. Over time, the materials can be disturbed from repair work, environmental factors, or general wear and tear.

Maintenance workers are one of the highest-risk occupations today for legacy asbestos exposure.

Can Maintenance Workers Identify Asbestos in Buildings?

Identifying asbestos in buildings is difficult, especially for maintenance workers who likely do not have the training required to recognize asbestos. The only way to confirm asbestos is by testing samples.

Asbestos can look loose and fluffy, similar to attic insulation, or as a solid material like cement sheets. Asbestos can be white, brown, gray or blue depending on the type used. If mixed with cement or other materials, asbestos can be even tougher to identify.

When asbestos is disturbed and released, the fibers are microscopic and nearly invisible. Workers likely will not notice the fibers floating in the air or sticking to their clothes or skin.

Even if maintenance workers cannot identify asbestos, they should be aware of which building parts and materials (insulation, ceiling tiles, gaskets, pumps, floor tiles, paint, electrical parts) can contain asbestos. They should treat these parts with caution, especially if they know the building is old and has not been renovated in a while.

Asbestos Exposure for Family and Friends of Maintenance Workers

Asbestos can stick to the clothes or skin of maintenance workers. This lingering danger has caused exposure for workers’ friends and family members – and still can today.

Family members who washed or folded maintenance workers’ clothes could kick asbestos fibers up into the air. They may have even hugged maintenance workers when they returned home for the day or spent time together in a car, which is an enclosed space. These are just a few examples of how asbestos exposure could occur for family and friends of maintenance workers.

All of these examples of secondhand asbestos exposure are still relevant today for maintenance workers’ family and friends.

How Maintenance Workers Can Protect Themselves From Asbestos

The Environmental Protection Agency offers a guide for maintenance and operations staff in buildings, plants, and refineries to protect from asbestos. First, let’s cover protective equipment to wear.

Worker Personal Protective Equipment

Protective clothing for maintenance workers usually is coveralls, a head cover, foot covers that prevent asbestos from passing through, and a respirator and/or mask. This outfit can prevent fibers from reaching the worker’s nose or mouth, avoiding inhalation or ingestion. Asbestos also cannot stick to these clothing pieces and be carried into the worker’s home to affect family members.

Always remove and dispose of protective clothing after use. Never wash and re-use protective gear.

Occupational Safety and Health Administration regulations require maintenance workers to wear protective clothing whenever they are exposed or likely to be exposed to fiber levels above the permissible levels. The permissible exposure limit (PEL) for asbestos is 0.1 fiber per cubic centimeter of air averaged throughout an 8-hour workday (time-weighted average) and an excursion limit of 1.0 fiber per cubic centimeter of air averaged every 30 minutes.

Some maintenance tasks may require using a respirator. EPA recommends using a respirator when accidental contact with asbestos is possible, or when workers intend to repair, remove, or seal known asbestos in a building.

Never use disposable paper dust masks. Use one of the two options:

• A half or full facepiece, negative pressure, air-purifying respirator with high-efficiency, replaceable filters
• A half or full facepiece powered air purifying respirator with replaceable, high-efficiency filters and a battery-powered pump to assist breathing

Other Tips for Minimizing Asbestos Exposure in Maintenance Work

Follow these tips to avoid exposure and contain the danger:

In an effort to be cautious, always assume an unknown material could be asbestos and follow safety guidelines.

Isolation of Area

Close all doors and put up temporary barriers to restrict air flow and protect other people in the building: residents, workers, and customers. Place signs as necessary, such as immediately outside the area where asbestos is believed to exist.

If asbestos fibers can enter the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system, the EPA suggests modifying the system to prevent fibers from entering or shutting it down entirely to prevent fibers from reaching vents in other areas of the building.

Wet Cleaning

Dry sweeping or dusting can send asbestos fibers into the air. This can contaminate the oxygen for maintenance workers or other innocent bystanders.

Use wet cleaning or wet-wiping practices to pick up asbestos fibers. After using wet cloths, rags, or mops one time, they should be discarded as part of the asbestos waste. Do not let the items “dry out” because asbestos fibers can fall back onto the floor and present the same exposure risks as before.

HEPA Vacuums

HEPA vacuums, or high-efficiency particulate air vacuums, can be preferable to wet cleaning asbestos. These are special vacuum cleaners equipped with filters designed to remove small particles from the air along with floors, tables, walls, or other surfaces.

The vacuum filters the particles from the air through the vacuum. Ordinary vacuum cleaners are not filtered properly for this work, and sharp asbestos fibers can escape their filter and return to the air.

Use caution when emptying HEPA vacuums and changing filters. These acts can lead to asbestos exposure. Before emptying a HEPA vacuum, workers should move the vacuum to an isolated area and put on proper protective equipment (covered in an earlier section on this page, but the main items are coveralls, face coverings, foot coverings, and a respirator).

Empty the dust and debris containing asbestos fibers into properly labeled, sealed, and leak-tight containers for disposal.

Steam Cleaning Carpets

The EPA suggests steam cleaning carpets as a method for extracting asbestos from a carpeted area of a building. Always wear proper respiratory protection as steam cleaning may send fibers up into the air to be inhaled or swallowed.

Consider steam cleaning carpets after normal working hours when bystanders and other workers are not nearby to be put at risk. Another option is to remove and replace the contaminated carpet altogether. The same safety guidelines regarding protective equipment apply.

Close all doors and restrict access to the area when steam cleaning or removing an asbestos-contaminated carpet.

Thorough Cleaning and Inspection

Conduct a thorough visual inspection and final air monitoring process to verify no asbestos fibers remain. Place all asbestos waste in leak-tight containers with proper labels and 6-mil-thick plastic bags.

Health Risks for Maintenance Workers

The health risks from asbestos exposure are types of cancer, particularly ones affecting the lungs. People who inhale or swallow asbestos fibers can develop lung cancer or a rare type of cancer called mesothelioma.

Mesothelioma is a rare cancer that forms in the lining of the lungs, abdominal cavity or heart. There are approximately 2,500 cases of mesothelioma diagnosed in the United States each year. Most cases of mesothelioma appear in the lining of the lungs.

The average survival for mesothelioma is 1-2 years. The patient’s prognosis depends on the stage of mesothelioma when diagnosed, their age and health, and which treatments they receive.

Another asbestos exposure disease is asbestosis. This is a scarring of lung tissue and can be deadly.

Mesothelioma and Maintenance Workers

This cancer has high rates among maintenance workers. A scientific paper in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine analyzed mortality rates of 2,504 maintenance employees at a Texas refinery and petrochemical plant. Maintenance workers at this plant were four times as likely as the general population to develop mesothelioma.

Mesothelioma takes anywhere from 20-50 years to develop after exposure to asbestos. This means maintenance workers exposed during the 20th century will not see symptoms of the cancer for multiple decades.

Maintenance workers should be aware of symptoms of mesothelioma. These include coughing, trouble breathing, chest or stomach pain, nausea, difficulty swallowing, and loss of appetite.

Regulations on Using Asbestos Today

For many years, the United States was behind other first-world countries on banning asbestos. In 2024, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) banned chrysotile asbestos, which is the most popular type of asbestos used in buildings during the 20th century.

Other types of asbestos are not banned, but they are heavily regulated. The EPA’s ban essentially eliminates the chance of an asbestos resurgence.

The only way maintenance workers are exposed today and going forward is from finding asbestos installed in old buildings from the 1980s or earlier.

Legal Rights and Compensation Options for Maintenance Workers Exposed to Asbestos

Maintenance workers exposed to asbestos have the right to file for compensation. Their options include lawsuits and asbestos trust funds. Some former maintenance workers with mesothelioma have received millions of dollars from companies responsible for their exposure.

Mesothelioma lawsuits are filed against companies actively operating. Lawsuits can lead to multi-million-dollar verdicts or settlements.

Asbestos trust funds are claims filed against companies that are bankrupt. Trust funds are bank accounts set up to quickly pay victims of asbestos exposure diseases. Trust fund payouts usually are less than $100,000 per trust, but most people affected by mesothelioma file with multiple trusts.

Which Companies Are Defendants in Mesothelioma Lawsuits?

In most cases, maintenance workers sue the companies that manufactured asbestos materials to use in buildings. The owners of buildings or chemical plants may employ or contract the maintenance workers, but they usually are unaware asbestos is present in their building. Property owners, building managers, or plant managers also did not know asbestos was dangerous when having their home or office built during the 20th century.

Manufacturing companies mined for asbestos and crafted asbestos materials to sell for construction jobs or use in oil refineries and plants. The executives at many companies had evidence asbestos could be lethal. This knowledge is a big reason why they are held responsible in court for mesothelioma in maintenance workers.

Final Thoughts: Maintenance Workers on the Frontlines of Asbestos Exposure

Maintenance workers during the 20th century regularly were exposed to asbestos from parts of the buildings they worked in: pipes, wall siding, floor tiles, ceiling, roof shingles, electrical sockets and wires, switchboards, attic insulation, gaskets, packing, and more parts of homes, offices, chemical plants, oil refineries, schools, hospitals, and other buildings.

Asbestos can cause mesothelioma, which is a rare and aggressive type of cancer. Maintenance workers with this disease can file for financial compensation, usually in the form of asbestos trust fund claims or lawsuits. The companies held responsible for mesothelioma cases are those that manufactured and sold asbestos materials to construction crews to use in buildings.

Even today, maintenance workers may encounter asbestos lurking in old buildings in need of repair and renovation. Workers should take whatever precautions necessary to avoid inhaling or swallowing fibers, even if it means stopping work and calling asbestos abatement experts.