Product Description
Baltimore Aircoil Company (BAC — founded 1938; today a subsidiary of Amsted Industries; headquartered Jessup MD) was through the asbestos era and remains today one of the principal U.S. manufacturers of industrial cooling towers, HVAC cooling towers, closed-circuit fluid coolers, and evaporative condensers for refineries, petrochemical plants, power plants, industrial process cooling, and commercial HVAC chilled-water installations.
Plaintiffs alleged in publicly filed U.S. asbestos personal-injury and wrongful-death litigation that BAC cooling towers were specified through the asbestos era with:
- Asbestos-cement (Transite-style) cooling-tower fill — corrugated splash bars and film fill inside the tower
- Asbestos-cement structural members — louvers, partitions, drift eliminators
- Asbestos gasket material at flanged connections
- Asbestos electrical insulation on tower fan motors and drives
Cooling-tower service mechanics, refinery pipefitters, and millwrights who tore out and replaced old asbestos-cement BAC cooling-tower fill — a routine multi-decade maintenance task — released substantial respirable asbestos fiber during the work.
Baltimore Aircoil Company has been named as a Manufacturer Defendant in publicly filed U.S. asbestos personal-injury and wrongful-death litigation.
Workers Exposed
- Cooling-tower service mechanics specializing in fill tear-out and replacement
- Refinery pipefitters and millwrights working refinery cooling-tower turnarounds
- Power-plant operators and maintenance workers
- HVAC service mechanics servicing commercial cooling-tower installations
- Construction-trade workers on cooling-tower new-installation projects