Alcoa Rockdale – Rockdale, TX

The Alcoa Rockdale Works, established in 1952 near Rockdale, Texas, used vast quantities of asbestos in its operations from 1952 to 1980.   As workers became sick and disabled from asbestos exposure, Cappolino Dodd Krebs, LLP led the fight for compensation.  Over the years, our firm has helped hundreds of people with asbestos related claims arising from the Alcoa operations in Rockdale.  This gives our firm unparalleled insight into Alcoa’s liability for asbestos-related diseases.

Establishment and Operations

In 1952, Alcoa initiated construction of the Rockdale smelter.

The Alcoa smelter had a production capacity of approximately 270,000 tons per year.  The facility produced primary aluminum ingots, which were then transported to various manufacturing and casting processes.

Asbestos Use At Alcoa Rockdale

The Alcoa Rockdale facility used asbestos throughout the plant, particularly from its opening in 1952 until asbestos was phased out decades later. The main uses of asbestos products included the following:

Potrooms and Potlining

The senior corporate industrial hygienist for the Alcoa corporation stated that asbestos was ubiquitous, all throughout, the Alcoa smelters. In the pot rooms it was located overhead and under workers and even in protective gear.  Cappolino Dodd Krebs, LLP  has taken hundreds of depositions of  Alcoa workers, co-workers, Alcoa Rockdale management staff, Alcoa corporate managers and experts and has assembled millions of pages of documents through written discovery relating to asbestos use at the plant.

The large pot rooms at Alcoa were filled with many large metal containers called “pots.” These pots were made out of steel. Each pot must be lined with insulation to prevent the molten aluminum from contacting the steel shell of the pot.  The aluminum is manufactured inside the pot by combining extremely high levels of electric current with alumina in a cryolite bath.

Block insulation and loose fiber insulation (sometimes referred to as “shorts” or “fluffy stuff” or “fluffo”) were installed in the pots as lining before the pot could operated. Pot room workers called Pot Liners installed the block insulation in the bottom and side of the pot shell and any gaps between the block insulation were filled with the fluffy asbestos material​ known as “shorts.”  The pot liners scored and then cut or broke by hand the block insulation  to make it fit and cover the surface and sides of the pot shell. Asbestos shorts were also mixed with a product workers referred to as “molasses” which allowed the shorts to be shaped around holes in the pots used to fit collector bars. The pots required these insulation materials at the bottom and sides of the pots to retain the molten metal. The asbestos block and shorts were covered with other material before the raw materials were placed in the pot to melt into aluminum. Since 2002, Cappolino Dodd Krebs, LLP has developed an entire history of the specific asbestos products used to line and insulate pots at the Rockdale facility.

Sometimes pots were lined in the pot rooms and at other times Alcoa lined pots in a separate department called “the pot lining department.” The pot lining department was responsible for placing asbestos insulation into the pots. Workers would use forklifts to bring large bags of insulation to the pots, as well as the asbestos board products and asbestos blocks. The workers would often rip open the bags and dump the contents directly into the pot which created a significant amount of dust. The scoring and cutting of asbestos block insulation also created a significant amount of dust. From 1952 to 1980 Pot Liners did not have masks or respirators when doing this work or they had paper masks which did not provide protection against asbestos dust.

Duct pipes carrying fumes away from the pots in the pot room were made of asbestos. The duct pipes were fastened to the pot superstructure with asbestos cloth. Pot room workers would have to remove and replace the duct pipes when removing a pot and replace the duct pipe and cloth when re-installing the pot. This removal and replacement of the duct pipe would create significant dust. During this process the duct pipe would at times break creating significant dust. Carbon setters in the pot rooms wore asbestos-containing leggings and asbestos-containing gloves  to protect  them against the extreme heat generated by the pots​. Carbon setters and pot tenders would also have to replace asbestos gaskets on the siphon heads used to siphon molten metal out of the pot. These workers would have to rowel or use an air powered roweler to take out any loose material from the siphon head to remove and replace the asbestos gasket. This process would create significant dust. These pot room workers did have masks or respirators when doing this work or they had paper masks which did not provide protection against asbestos dust.

Crane Maintenance and Millwright Work:

Cappolino, Dodd & Krebs, L.L.P. has obtained extensive information about the overhead crane system at Alcoa. Examples of other asbestos use in the pot rooms included specific applications, such as crane brakes and gear boxes. Overhead cranes carried materials and molten metal throughout the pot rooms. Asbestos-containing brake linings were used on these overhead cranes, including brands such as Bendix. These brake linings and gaskets in the gear boxes were removed and installed during routine maintenance on overhead cranes in the pot rooms and in other areas of the plant, such as the carbon plant and the metal services department.  Removal and replacement of the asbestos brake linings in the crane brakes and gaskets in the gear boxes created significant dust. Crane operators and crane millwrights doing this work did not have masks or respirators or they had paper masks which did not provide protection against asbestos dust. Crane operators would also have to clean out the brake housing and the crane with air hoses which created a significant amount of dust which spread throughout the pot room, carbon plant and metal services department.

Pipe Covering and Insulation:

The Alcoa plant had miles of pipes insulated with asbestos.  Asbestos pipe covering materials such as Kaylo, PABCO, and Unibestos were used extensively. The insulation was often cut to fit the pipe, producing asbestos dust, especially during maintenance work. Asbestos powder such as shorts were often mixed with water and used to cover pipes which created a significant amount of dust.   Workers were frequently working side by side or very close to the pipefitters who were removing the old insulation and cutting, mixing and installing the new insulation to the pipes.

Additional Products and Brands:

Narco insulation, identified by bags with an Indian head logo, was often transported from the storeroom to workers in pot rooms​. This material was used in the pots along with board insulation to insulate the pots. Other asbestos materials mentioned by our clients include included Grefco, Johns Manville, and products from A.P. Green, all of which were linked to insulation and fireproofing tasks​. Note (add a lot more product names, as many as there are that we know about).

Carbon Plant

The purpose of the Alcoa carbon plant was to bake carbon blocks for use as anodes in the pots during the aluminum smelting process. The carbon plant had many different uses for asbestos products. Asbestos dust from brake and gear box work on the cranes and well as cleaning the brake and gear box housing and the cranes with a compressed air hose released asbestos dust throughout the carbon plant building. The crane operators would also release asbestos dust into the carbon plant when the operators would apply the brakes.

Carbon anodes were baked in many rows of baking furnaces. These furnaces used fire brick and asbestos insulation to contain the heat needed to bake the carbon blocks. The asbestos products used in the carbon plant baking furnaces included asbestos insulation between the firebricks and asbestos firebricks and asbestos insulation on top of the baking furnaces. Brick masons and carbon plant workers called “packers and unpackers” and others insulating the carbon plant furnaces were exposed to significant levels of asbestos.

Ingot Plant (“Metal Services”)

The ingot plant, also known as “metal services,” is where molten metal was poured into molds to form aluminum ingots (commonly referred to as “pigs”) and aluminum coils. Asbestos insulation called marinite along with asbestos block,  shorts and refractory material was used throughout the ingot plant to insulate furnaces and troughs which carried molten metal from the furnaces to molds where the ingots were formed. Alcoa also applied and removed asbestos insulation on the crucibles from which the aluminum was passed into the troughs for transport to the molds.  Asbestos shorts insulation was used as a dusty lubricant in the molds to prevent metal from sticking to the molds.

The ingot plant had overhead cranes releasing asbestos dust throughout the ingot department from brake and gear box repair, application of crane brakes and cleaning of the cranes with compressed air. The workers in the ingot plant did not have masks or respirators when doing their work or had paper masks which did not provide protection against asbestos dust.

Abatement and phase-out of asbestos:

Our clients report little if any efforts to stop the use of asbestos while they worked at the plant.

​Safety Measures:

Exposure to high levels of asbestos was a persistent hazard at Alcoa​ until about 1980.

Workforce and Community Impact:

Alcoa Rockdale employed thousands of workers. Many of these workers and their wives developed various types of cancers linked to asbestos exposure.  Among the most common cancers linked to asbestos exposure include:

  1. Mesothelioma: A cancer of the lining of the lungs that is almost universally caused by asbestos exposure and has no known link to smoking or other cancer-causing agents.
  2. Lung cancer: Although lung cancer can take various forms, all forms can be caused by asbestos exposure. This is particularly true of asbestos exposure combined with cigarette smoking. Exposure to both asbestos and cigarette smoke creates a synergistic risk of developing cancer, or a multiplication of the risk. The risk of smoking and using asbestos products generally means that the risk to the worker is a multiple of their smoking exposure times their risk of asbestos exposure.
  3. Cancer of the gastrointestinal tract: Although various cancers of the gastrointestinal tract are likely linked to asbestos exposure, colon cancer is the most commonly cited gastrointestinal cancer that can be linked to asbestos exposure. Other possibly compensable cancers include throat, esophageal, and stomach cancer.
  4. Pulmonary fibrosis: Pulmonary fibrosis is not cancer. It is scarring of the lungs. Scarring of the lungs caused by exposure to asbestos is called asbestosis. It can result in severe disability or death.

Alcoa’s Liability for Asbestos-Related Disease:

Over the course of hundreds of depositions and decades of legal discovery, Cappolino Dodd Krebs, LLP has uncovered many details about what Alcoa knew and when they knew it.  Alcoa’s knowledge began as early as the 1930s.

  • Tom Bonney, a senior industrial hygienist for Alcoa, learned asbestos could cause asbestosis in 1948.  Tom Bonney gave extensive deposition and trial testimony later in his career.  Cappolino Dodd Krebs deposed Mr. Bonney over multiple days, and learned that Alcoa’s internal knowledge of the dangers of asbestos was far greater than imagined.
  • Alcoa knew in 1955 of the connection between cancer and asbestos exposure.
  • Alcoa knew in the 1960s of the connection between asbestos exposure and mesothelioma.
  • Asbestos was a ubiquitous material at all the plants.
  • There was no dust monitoring for asbestos prior to the 1970s.
  • No requirements for masks or respirators for asbestos exposure until the 1970s.
  • 2/13/73 document (post-OSHA) indicating that some of Alcoa’s operating locations have difficulty in making asbestos fiber count determinations as requested by OSHA in 6/72 where the document says, “Since we have significant asbestos fiber exposures at a number of our operating locations, it’s important that affected locations be able to make accurate asbestos counts.”
  • Bonney testified that almost any of the smelters had significant asbestos fiber exposures.
  • RC Hinkle, the one responsible for industrial hygiene at Baden smelter, sent a memo dated 5/29/73 with a table entitled “Predicted Asbestos Dust Concentrations Taken from Actual Measurements of Industrial Operations” showing ripout of dry materials that fibers per cc produced by that operation were in excess of 200 fibers per cc, approximately 40 times the permissible exposure limit.
  • Bonney was aware as of 1977 that asbestos was still being used in a number of capacities at Alcoa Rockdale (and presumably the other plants).
  • Bonney was aware as of 1977 that marinite was first identified as a hazard in the early 1960s and was still being used at Alcoa Rockdale, being used “throughout the circuit” (which I believe means throughout many of the plants.
  • OSHA citations at plants regarding asbestos violations (Alcoa Rockdale, Warrick, etc).
  • Document of 7/28/78 from Bonney that says “our goal of eliminating asbestos usage is not yet at hand” at our plants. “As we visit our plants, we still see asbestos products being used.”
  • Document from Bonney that says as of July 1979, Alcoa Rockdale was still involved with may uses of asbestos containing materials “to the extent we had to bring in the big guns to have a concerted effort to clean out the house.”
  • Bonney testified in 1948 that it would serve no purpose to tell an employee about hazards that could ultimately result in serious injury or death saying, “it didn’t seem to be necessary. It wasn’t necessary at the time.”