Product Description

According to publicly filed U.S. asbestos personal-injury and wrongful-death litigation records, Sybron International, doing business through its Barnstead and Barnstead-Thermolyne laboratory-equipment divisions, allegedly manufactured, distributed, and sold pre-1980s bench-top and floor-standing laboratory steam autoclaves and jacketed sterilizers fitted with woven chrysotile asbestos-fabric door gaskets and asbestos-braided valve-stem packing. Plaintiffs alleged that the door gasket sat in a channel around the perimeter of the pressure-vessel door and formed the primary steam seal each time the vessel was closed and pressurized to 121 degrees Celsius at 15 psi.

Plaintiffs alleged in publicly filed litigation that Barnstead-branded autoclaves were widely used in university microbiology labs, teaching hospitals, pharmaceutical development benches, industrial R&D labs, and clinical processing rooms. Plaintiffs alleged the gasket was consumable — hardened, cracked, and burned by every steam cycle — and that scheduled maintenance required the technician to scrape the old gasket out of the channel with a putty knife or screwdriver, wire-brush the seat clean, and install a fresh length of asbestos rope or ribbon. Plaintiffs alleged the scrape-and-brush operation, the cutting of fresh gasket stock, and the repacking of steam-line valve stems each released respirable chrysotile fibers into the breathing zone of the lab technician or biomedical repair technician performing the work.

Workers Exposed

Plaintiffs alleged occupational asbestos exposure from Barnstead / Sybron autoclave asbestos gaskets and packing among the following populations:

  • Hospital and clinical lab technicians operating and maintaining Barnstead autoclaves
  • University and college laboratory technicians in microbiology, biology, and biochemistry teaching labs
  • Graduate students and postdoctoral researchers preparing sterile media, glassware, and instruments
  • Pharmaceutical development lab chemists doing sterile compounding and formulation work
  • Industrial R&D lab chemists running sterile bench work and cell-culture support
  • Biomedical equipment repair technicians servicing hospital and lab sterilizers
  • Lab-equipment maintenance technicians who scraped and re-packed door channels and valve stems
  • Central-supply and sterile-processing staff at teaching hospitals and research institutes