SIC 3292 Asbestos Products

SIC 3292

This category includes companies that primarily make asbestos textiles, asbestos building materials (except asbestos paper), insulating materials for covering boilers and pipes, and other products composed wholly or chiefly of asbestos. Companies that primarily make asbestos paper are in SIC 2621: Paper Mills. Those making gaskets and packing materials are in SIC 3053: Gaskets, Packing, and Sealing Devices.

NAICS CODE(S)

336340

Motor Vehicle Brake System Manufacturing

327999

All Other Miscellaneous Nonmetallic Mineral Product Manufacturing

INDUSTRY SNAPSHOT

Serious health concerns have all but dismantled the asbestos industry in the United States. Use of asbestos plummeted after medical studies in the early 1970s linked airborne asbestos fibers to a couple of serious illnesses: asbestosis and mesothelioma. Asbestosis scars the lungs and interferes with respiratory function, while mesothelioma is a rare and deadly form of cancer. Acting on these health concerns, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) banned the use of spray-on asbestos insulation in 1973, and the U.S. tile and floor-covering industry, once a major consumer, voluntarily stopped asbestos use by 1986. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the value of asbestos products made in the United States in 1990 was about $352 million. By 1995, sales fell so low that no figures were available.

In 1989 the EPA issued a ruling that would have eliminated asbestos use in the United States by 1996. However, the ban was declared unreasonable by the federal courts, which permitted asbestos use in products imported or made in the United States as of July 1989. The courts upheld an EPA ban on any new products with asbestos. By 2003, there were approximately 400,000 victims of asbestos exposure suing for compensation in the U.S. courts. Manufacturers of asbestos materials and insurers of those manufacturers were working out the details of contributing to a multi-billion dollar trust fund to distribute to victims, with claims ranging from general medical monitoring to cancer, into the year 2030.

BACKGROUND AND DEVELOPMENT

Asbestos is a group of soft minerals composed of tiny fibers that is nearly impervious to acid, fire, and biological decay, and is a poor conductor of heat and electricity. During the late 1800s, when it was first widely used to insulate boilers, steam pipes, and other high-temperature industrial equipment, asbestos became known as "white gold," especially in Canada, which was the world's leading supplier.

Since 1900, asbestos was used in more than 3,000 products made in the United States, from safety clothing and automobile brake linings to textured paints and electrical insulation. The most extensive use of asbestos was as construction insulation. The United States used thousands of tons of asbestos insulation in ships built during World War II. Another surge in asbestos insulation use was in the 1960s when it was routinely sprayed on structural beams and roof decks. In the mid-1970s, the United States used an estimated 700,000 tons of asbestos per...

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