Bricks have been one of the nation’s primary building products for several centuries. Until recently, almost all American bricks and their cement joining mortar contained vast quantities of asbestos.
Fact-Checked and Updated by: Jenna Tozzi, RN
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Bricks and Asbestos Exposure
Asbestos was used in brick manufacturing and the bricklaying process because it added immense tensile strength to materials. Asbestos was lightweight as well. That reduced heavy burdens as gravity forces pulled at tall walls and fire flues.
Asbestos gave brick materials a fantastic ability to withstand high heat and be fireproof. It’s no wonder bricks were the prime choice for fireplace linings known as firebricks.
Asbestos was overwhelmingly used in almost all brick products from the turn of the twentieth century until the 1980s when the dangers of airborne asbestos exposure became widely known.
Besides adding strength and being fire resistant as well as reducing structural weight, asbestos raw materials were readily sourced, inexpensive, and stable.
Brick and mortar asbestos content varied according to their purpose and installation. Firebricks and their mortar contained up to 80 percent asbestos.
Fireboxes, flues, and chimneys were able to stand prolonged periods of direct flame contact because the asbestos additives didn’t burn or distort no matter how hot they got.
Ordinary clay and concrete bricks couldn’t handle this. Neither could regular Portland cement-based mortar mixes.
For nearly a century, hundreds of thousands suffered exposure in environments where airborne asbestos fibers floated in clouds about their workplace.
Every worker involved in the brick industry risked severe health problems when working with asbestos-containing materials (ACMs) like bricks.
These people were handling brick and mortar products with ACMs:
Miners who extracted and processed asbestos for the brick industry.
Workers manufacturing bricks in kilns and concrete plants.
Journeymen bricklayers and block masons who cut, fit and mortared bricks on construction sites.
Apprentices mixing mortar and adding raw asbestos into powders.
Other tradespersons working around brick sawing and mortar mixing dust.
Fieldcraft persons had the highest asbestos exposure risk because they always disturbed asbestos particles while installing bricks. But other workers in the process experienced airborne asbestos from secondary sources.
Many brick factories had brick wall construction and hot water boilers wrapped in asbestos linings heated them. As well, asbestos wallboard, tiles, and roofing products abounded.
Asbestos dust also came home to cross-contaminate workers’ families. Bricklayers, their tools, and vehicles were covered by asbestos brick dust by day’s end. They returned home with asbestos particles on their clothes and in their hair.
Other construction workers also became exposed to asbestos in bricklaying projects. It was impossible to escape workplace asbestos dust from different materials which put bricklayers, themselves, at risk for cross-contamination.
Every worker exposed to brick products containing asbestos was at risk of developing the deadly lung disease called mesothelioma.
Asbestos fiber exposure is the single cause of mesothelioma and it’s not treatable in an advanced and aggressive form.
The lung lining is called the mesothelium and, over time, inhaling tiny asbestos fibers damages it.
Bricklayers and block masons who worked in dusty asbestos environments continually breathed in microscopic asbestos shards. These micro-abrasion particles impaled the mesothelium and remained permanently attached.
Asbestos fibers can’t break down or expel. Over time, they create scar tissue from irritating the mesothelium.
There is a lengthy latency period of anywhere from 20 to 50 years, but eventually, those exposed to asbestos could develop mesothelioma.
Compensation for Mesothelioma Victims
Exposure to asbestos dust from working with brick products caused many mesothelioma cases. Tragically, most mesothelioma victims were unaware of airborne asbestos fiber exposure dangers. Now they suffer incurable cancer.
The only recourse is claiming compensation from negligent producers and suppliers of ACMs.
If you suffer from mesothelioma as the result of workplace asbestos exposure, you deserve compensation.
You may claim for medical expenses, personal injury damages, and lost income. Families can also file claims on behalf of members ill with mesothelioma. They can also file wrongful death lawsuits.
This practice was so common that brick mortar applied between 1920 and 1980 would almost without question have contained asbestos. Typical places where brick or brick mortar were used include: masonry walls. foundations.
History of Asbestos Discovery. If you have ever wondered about the history of asbestos and where it comes from, the key carcinogen responsible for mesothelioma began when it was first discovered in a Greek quarry around 4,500 years ago.
Yes, asbestos was used in cement formulations of all kinds from the 1930s to the 1980s. Cinder blocks manufactured during this time period were no exception.
Roofing and siding shingles. Textured paint and patching compounds used on walls and ceilings. Walls and floors around wood-burning stoves protected with asbestos paper, millboard, or cement sheets. Hot water and steam pipes coated with asbestos material or covered with an asbestos blanket or tape.
Asbestos was overwhelmingly used in almost all brick products from the turn of the twentieth century until the 1980s when the dangers of airborne asbestos exposure became widely known.
Even if the bricks are not fit for load bearing purposes they can still be reused, for non-load-bearing uses such as pavement, cladding or aesthetic purposes.
Your older home probably did not come with an inventory of all asbestos containing materials, but if the house in which you live was built before 1980, there's a good chance that you'll find asbestos containing materials in the walls, ceiling, roof or floors – or all of the above.
Asbestos is most commonly found in three rock types: serpentinites, altered ultramafic rocks, and some mafic rocks. Other rock types known to host asbestos include metamorphosed dolostones, metamorphosed iron formations, carbonatites, and alkalic intrusions.
Researchers first discovered the link between asbestos exposure and cancer in 1934. The warnings for this risk of cancer relative to asbestos would not come until 1942. A year later, the first mesothelioma-like tumor was reported in Germany. By 1949, asbestos is widely understood to be harmful.
There are many types of materials that look like asbestos that aren't. After 1980, asbestos in residential construction was outlawed. BUT, that was friable asbestos. The kind that can easily become airborne.
Although asbestos fibers are sealed within the matrix, chipping or otherwise tearing out asbestos-containing concrete could release the fibers into the air. If asbestos becomes airborne (especially in enclosed construction sites), workers face an elevated risk of developing asbestos-related diseases.
Asbestos was common in fiber-reinforced concrete for the same reason it was common in many products: it was inexpensive, easy to acquire, and had some useful properties. Typically, asbestos concrete consisted primarily of chrysotile asbestos ("white asbestos," often called "good" asbestos) mixed with Portland concrete.
Asbestos was used extensively in home construction from the early 1940s through the 1970s as highly-effective and inexpensive fire-retardant material and thermal and acoustic insulator.
Asbestos air-cell insulation looks like corrugated cardboard and is especially dangerous because the cardboard wears down over time, making the asbestos friable. Found around pipes and ductwork, it is most often seen in basem*nts, attics, and utility rooms.
Houses built between 1930 and 1950 may have asbestos as insulation. Asbestos may be present in textured paint and patching compounds used on wall and ceiling joints. Their use was banned in 1977. Artificial ashes and embers sold for use in gas-fired fireplaces may contain asbestos.
Asbestos was used extensively in home construction from the early 1940s through the 1970s as highly-effective and inexpensive fire-retardant material and thermal and acoustic insulator.
Asbestos was used in cement and concrete products to provide strength, durability and flame resistance. Asbestos cement products were produced from the early 1900s to around 1980.
1977: The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) bans asbestos-containing spackling and tape joint compounds used to repair drywall as well as decorative ashes and embers and artificial logs made with the toxic fiber.
Introduction: My name is Lidia Grady, I am a thankful, fine, glamorous, lucky, lively, pleasant, shiny person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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