Millwrights

History and Background

Millwright is a general term that refers to those people who install and repair machinery and heavy equipment. These men and women install many different things including: conveyor systems, escalators, giant turbines, generators and boilers among others. These provide the heat and electricity that is integral to every new building. Millwrights also maintain the pieces they have assembled and also dismantle older pieces that are no longer required. It is a difficult occupation that can take years of training to perfect as precision is extremely important. In 2002 there were 69,000 millwrights in the United States.

Tasks Putting Millwrights at Risk for Asbestos Exposure

As a part of the construction industry, millwrights were exposed to asbestos throughout the past several decades. Asbestos dust, if inhaled, can be extremely hazardous to one's health as discussed below. Many of the pieces that millwrights assembled were made with asbestos. For example, boilers often have asbestos insulation, asbestos was used in gaskets in order to seal valves, and moving parts within turbines and generators were often made with asbestos or coated with it in order to protect against heat damage.

While assembling these pieces, millwrights often use cutting torches, welding machines and soldering guns. If a piece did not fit perfectly, the millwright would have to cut it or grind it so that it was exactly precise. Grinding, welding, and cutting metal pieces could result in asbestos dust getting into the air.

Millwrights also had to disassemble older pieces of equipment and could have been exposed to asbestos as a result. For example, in order to remove an old boiler it would have to be stripped of its insulation (asbestos) and broken down, potentially creating a dangerous work environment.

Millwrights Were at Risk for Mesothelioma and Other Asbestos Illnesses

If you were a millwright, did you realize that you may be at risk for developing mesothelioma? Millwrights were under the constant threat of asbestos exposure in their jobs and for decades, they were not even aware of the dangerous conditions that they were working in. This is because asbestos manufacturers deliberately chose to not reveal the truth about asbestos and the health hazards it presented to workers. As a result millwrights were not able to employ proper safety precautions while working with the material.

Mesothelioma symptoms can sometimes take up to forty years to appear, so even if you are now retired you should be aware that the possibility for being diagnosed with an asbestos-related illness still exists. The first signs of mesothelioma can "look" similar to those of a non life-threatening upper respiratory condition (i.e. shortness of breath, chronic cough and fatigue). If you have these symptoms and they do not go away in a reasonable amount of time it would be helpful to see your doctor. He / she can evaluate your condition to help determine if more extensive testing is required. Detecting mesothelioma or any asbestos disease in the early stages means that there are more treatment options available to fight it.