Eddystone Asbestos Exposure: Job Sites, Employers & Trades

Quick answer

Exposure around Eddystone clusters in a handful of industries and trades, from the 1940s into the 1980s
You do not need to know a product name — knowing the employer and the years is enough to start
Bystander exposure counts: people who never handled asbestos but worked near those who did
Household members exposed to dust carried home on work clothes may have a claim of their own
Call (610) 684-9759 for a free review — we can usually tell quickly whether a site is one we know

Eddystone’s asbestos history is unusual in this network because the borough’s main industry did not merely use the material — it built it into things and shipped them out. Baldwin’s Eddystone works turned out steam locomotives for half a century, and every one of them left the shop with a lagged boiler: insulation, block and cement fitted by hand in the erecting and boiler shops. The exposure was the job description, not a hazard in the background of it. Michael Schafle's main site documents the Baldwin Locomotive Works asbestos history in detail.

Asbestos exposure is local in a way most injuries are not. It happened at particular buildings, on particular shifts, in particular trades, and the same handful of employers come up again and again in a given town. Around Eddystone the recurring ones include the Baldwin Locomotive Works, whose 600-acre Eddystone plant built steam locomotives until 1956, the erecting shops, boiler shops, foundries and forge floors inside that works, PECO’s Eddystone generating station on the riverfront, and the Eddystone print works and the wartime ordnance work along the same shore.

The trades most often affected are boilermakers and boiler laggers, erecting-shop machinists, foundry and forge crews, pipefitters, sheet-metal workers, painters, riggers, and powerhouse operators. That reflects where the material actually was: wrapped around steam and process lines, packed into boilers and furnaces, cut into block and cement, sitting in gaskets and packing at every pump and valve, sprayed onto structural steel for fireproofing. The people who installed it, repaired it, and above all tore it out took the heaviest doses, because removal is what puts fiber into the air.

Bystander exposure is the part people discount about themselves. Someone who never touched insulation but worked in the same shop while insulators cut and fitted it all day was breathing the same air. Office and clerical staff in older industrial buildings sometimes have real exposure histories for the same reason. If the honest answer is "I didn't work with it, but I worked around people who did," that is worth a conversation rather than a shrug.

Exposure also travelled home. Dust carried on coveralls into houses across Eddystone, Crum Lynne, Leiperville, Ridley Park, Woodlyn, Prospect Park, and over the line into Chester exposed spouses and children, most often through laundry. Those household members can have claims in their own right, built on the worker's job history rather than their own.

You are not expected to arrive with product names. Almost nobody remembers whose gaskets were in a pump in 1968. The employer, the job title, and a rough span of years are enough to start; identifying the products is our job, and it is done through supplier records, co-workers, and the histories of the sites themselves. Every case is different, and past results do not guarantee a similar outcome.

Around that sat the rest of a working riverfront. The Eddystone generating station ran boilers, turbines and miles of insulated steam line; the print works and the wartime ordnance plants had their own heat and their own lagging; and Sun Ship at Chester and the Westinghouse plant at Lester were close enough that Eddystone men worked all of them across a career. Reconstructing exposure here usually means placing someone in a sequence of those, not in one.

Call (610) 684-9759

Fees and costs in Eddystone

Consultation and initial case review, at home or at the hospital	$0
Mesothelioma or asbestos claim, handled on contingency	No fee unless there is a recovery — the percentage is agreed in writing before representation begins
Requesting employment, union, and military records on your behalf	Included in the case review

No fee unless there is a recovery. Any fee is a percentage agreed in writing before representation begins.

Questions, answered

Was the asbestos in the Baldwin plant, or in the locomotives themselves?

Both, and that distinction is worth drawing. The shops had the usual insulated steam lines and furnaces, but the engines being built were themselves lagged with asbestos — so the men fitting it handled the material directly, all shift, as the job.

My father was at the Eddystone power station rather than Baldwin. Different case?

Different employer and different suppliers, same route. Generating stations ran boilers, turbines and miles of insulated steam line, and the crews who maintained and relined them worked in that material constantly.

Which Eddystone employers come up most in asbestos claims?

The ones that recur locally include the Baldwin Locomotive Works, whose 600-acre Eddystone plant built steam locomotives until 1956, the erecting shops, boiler shops, foundries and forge floors inside that works, PECO’s Eddystone generating station on the riverfront. That is not an exhaustive list, and a site not named here can still support a claim — the review is where that gets checked.

I never handled asbestos myself, only worked nearby. Does that count?

Often yes. Bystander exposure — working in the same space while others cut, fitted, or removed asbestos — is a recognized exposure route, because the fiber is airborne.

I don't know which products were used. Can I still bring a claim?

Yes. Very few people remember product names decades later. The employer, job title, and approximate years are enough to begin; identifying manufacturers is done through supplier records, site histories, and co-workers.