Gaskets — Asbestos Exposure Crosswalk

What This Equipment Is

A gasket is a sealing element that compresses between two mating surfaces to prevent leakage. In an industrial plant, you find gaskets on every flanged piping joint, every bolted vessel cover, every heat-exchanger head, every valve bonnet, every manway and handhole, every pump and compressor cover. A medium-sized refinery can contain hundreds of thousands of them.

Throughout most of the twentieth century, the standard gasket materials for hot, pressurized, or chemical service were asbestos-based:

  • Compressed asbestos sheet (a chrysotile / binder sheet, sold in standard thicknesses)
  • Spiral-wound gaskets with asbestos filler
  • Ring-joint gaskets (largely metallic, but with asbestos packing in some designs)
  • Rubber-asbestos sheet for lower temperature service
  • Asbestos millboard for high-temperature gasketing

Why Gasket Work Was a High-Exposure Activity

Gasket replacement is routine maintenance at any industrial facility. Every flange that leaks, every pump that’s pulled for rebuild, every valve that’s repacked, every vessel that’s opened for inspection — they all generate gasket work.

The classic exposure pathway: a worker uses a scraper, wire wheel, or grinder to remove the old, dried, baked-on gasket residue from the flange faces. That residue is asbestos in dust form, released into the worker’s breathing zone at close range. Then a new asbestos gasket is cut to shape, often with a knife or punch, generating more loose fiber. Multiplied across hundreds of jobs per year, the cumulative dose was substantial.

Manufacturers Named in Gasket Litigation

  • Garlock Sealing Technologies — sheet gaskets, spiral-wound gaskets
  • John Crane — gasket and sealing products
  • A.W. Chesterton — sheet gasket material
  • Anchor Packing — packing and gasket products
  • Flexitallic — spiral-wound gaskets
  • Johns-Manville — gasket material
  • Crane Co. — co-defendant where valves shipped with original gaskets
  • Durabla Manufacturing — sheet gasket material

Documented Product References

Images sourced from publicly available product-identification reference materials. Inclusion does not constitute a finding of liability against any company.

Trust Funds That May Apply

  • Garlock Sealing Technologies LLC Asbestos PI Trust
  • Manville Personal Injury Settlement Trust
  • Flexitallic Group Asbestos PI Trust (where applicable)

Trades Most Exposed at Gasket Work

Pipefitters, maintenance mechanics, millwrights, boilermakers, refinery operators, brewers’ mechanics, power-plant mechanics — essentially any trade that ever broke and remade a flanged joint.

Jobsites in the Network Documenting Heavy Gasket Work

Compiled from publicly filed asbestos litigation, EPA / state-DNR records, and industry-publication histories. Product and company references reflect what has been alleged or documented in publicly filed litigation. This page does not constitute a finding of liability against any company. Not legal advice; consult a licensed attorney about your specific situation.