Asbestos Investigations & Research

🔍 Featured Investigation

By Alina Malone, Investigations Reporter May 17, 2026 12 sites documented

Brown & Root’s Gulf Coast Asbestos Trail: How One Contractor Exposed Tens of Thousands Across a Dozen Sites

From the 1940s through the 1980s, Brown & Root — the construction and maintenance contractor later acquired by Halliburton — performed pipe insulation, boiler overhauls, and plant construction at more than a dozen Gulf Coast petrochemical facilities. Workers were repeatedly exposed to raw asbestos during turnarounds at Shell Deer Park, ExxonMobil Baytown, and the Port Arthur refineries. This investigation traces the exposure trail, the 1962 Halliburton acquisition that extended liability, and the current KBR trust fund that processes claims today.

Gulf Coast Texas Louisiana Contractors Halliburton / KBR Trust Fund

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🚨 Operator Liability

By Stephen Bailey, Investigations Reporter May 17, 2026

Avondale Shipyards: How Louisiana’s Largest Shipbuilder Knowingly Exposed 25,000 Workers to Asbestos — and Became the Landmark Employer Liability Case

Avondale Shipyards in Westwego, Louisiana employed tens of thousands of workers who handled Unibestos, Kaylo, and sprayed asbestos fireproofing daily. Court records show management knew about the hazards and chose not to warn workers — a finding that led courts to hold Avondale liable under Louisiana’s “intentional act” doctrine, unlocking full tort damages beyond workers’ compensation limits.

Louisiana Shipyards Operator Liability Intentional Act Doctrine

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🧪 Corporate Concealment

By Stephen Bailey, Investigations Reporter May 17, 2026

Chemical Valley: How Union Carbide, DuPont, and FMC Concealed Asbestos Hazards Across West Virginia’s Kanawha Valley for Decades

A 30-mile corridor of chemical plants along the Kanawha River employed over 40,000 workers in conditions saturated with asbestos insulation. Internal industrial hygiene reports produced in litigation show fiber counts submitted to OSHA were systematically lower than those recorded internally — while workers were told dust conditions were safe.

West Virginia Chemical Plants Union Carbide OSHA Records

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⚖️ Bankruptcy & Trusts

By Stephen Bailey, Investigations Reporter May 17, 2026

Sparrows Point: Inside Bethlehem Steel’s Asbestos Legacy at the World’s Largest Steelworks — and the Bankruptcy That Left 20,000 Workers Behind

The Sparrows Point steel complex outside Baltimore employed over 35,000 workers at peak, using asbestos throughout blast furnace linings, boilerhouses, coke ovens, and rolling mills. Bethlehem Steel’s 2001 bankruptcy cut off direct corporate claims — but six separate product manufacturer trust funds remain open for Sparrows Point workers diagnosed with mesothelioma today.

Maryland Steel Industry Bankruptcy Multiple Trust Funds

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What Industry Knew: A Timeline of Corporate Concealment

Internal documents produced in asbestos litigation have documented decades of corporate concealment. This timeline summarizes the key moments when industry knowledge outpaced what workers were told.

Year	What Was Known / What Happened
1918	U.S. insurance companies begin noting excessive early death rates among asbestos workers; some stop offering life insurance to asbestos workers
1930	British physician Dr. E.R.A. Merewether publishes landmark study documenting asbestosis in asbestos textile workers; U.S. manufacturers receive copies
1934–1935	Johns-Manville internal documents later produced in litigation show the company was aware of the health dangers of asbestos and decided not to warn workers
1943	Saranac Lake Laboratory studies commissioned by the asbestos industry document cancer-causing properties; industry suppresses publication
1955	Dr. Richard Doll publishes definitive study linking asbestos to lung cancer; information available in medical literature but not shared with workers
1960	South African researcher Christopher Wagner publishes first clear documentation linking mesothelioma specifically to asbestos exposure
1964	Dr. Irving Selikoff publishes landmark study of insulation workers showing catastrophically elevated asbestos disease rates; findings become widely publicized
1972	OSHA establishes first asbestos permissible exposure limit; manufacturers continue lobbying against stricter standards
1989	EPA attempts to ban most asbestos products; the asbestos industry challenges the ban in court and succeeds in overturning most of it in 1991
2024	EPA finalizes ban on chrysotile asbestos, the only remaining commercially used form in the United States — more than 60 years after the health risks were publicly documented

Submit Information or Documents

If you have court records, OSHA inspection reports, internal company documents, or personal knowledge about asbestos use at a specific facility that is not documented on this site, we welcome your contribution to the public record. Your information may help other workers from the same site identify and prove their exposure history.