Exeter Gas Plant

The Exeter Gas Plant was built in 1942. It is located in the New Hampshire town of the same name on a 3.2 acre plot on which sit municipal offices, a sewage pump station and an aging apartment complex.

There is not a great deal of information about the plant's operations, though it is likely that coal gasification was part of it. This is a process that produces a great deal of toxic chemical waste that can contaminate the groundwater. In addition, such facilities nearly always contained asbestos.

Asbestos use at older power generation facilities such as the one at Flint Creek are also known for their asbestos hazard. While asbestos from power plants is not a particular danger to the general public, it subjects maintenance workers and engineers to a high degree of risk from mesothelioma and other asbestos diseases.

Asbestos was likely to be found throughout the structures and in the moving machinery as well. Once these fibers were loose in the building environment, there were not only inhaled and ingested by workers, but were likely to become lodged in hair and clothing, where they were brought into the home – exposing family members.

The danger to power plant workers were highlighted in a 2003 study in Puerto Rico, in which the chest x-rays of 1100 such workers were analyzed. When tobacco use was factored out, over 130 of the images showed signs of asbestos disease. Today, industrial safety experts consider power generation facilities to be among the most dangerous for asbestos exposure.

Although the use of asbestos-containing materials was phased out beginning around 1980, anyone who worked at a power generating facility before the 1980s, or had a family member so employed, should discuss it with their doctor and get checked frequently. Mesothelioma has a long latency period, and by the time symptoms are apparent, it is usually too late to treat the disease. However, recent advances in biotechnology have made it possible for pathologists to detect the early “markers” of the disease; when diagnosed in its initial stages, asbestos cancers such as mesothelioma can usually be treated successfully.

In asbestos cases, it is usually the manufacturer of the asbestos product(s) that bear liability. However, it is usually necessary to go through records kept by the companies that owned these facilities in order to determine which products were used and where they came from. Owners of the Essex facility throughout its history include:

• Town of Exeter Public Works Department
• Exeter Gas Light Co.
• Northern Utilities
• Corcoran
• Mullins
• Jennison, Inc

Up until the 1980s, it was typical for industrial sites of all types to be built with the mineral asbestos because it offered high resistance to transferring heat and electricity. It is ironic that protecting human life was almost always one of the driving justifications behind utilizing asbestos in places for the result was actually to put employees in danger of serious illness or death due to inhalation of or other contact with asbestos. The reason for this is that strands of asbestos, if inhaled, embed themselves into internal organs, leading to serious diseases including asbestosis and cancer of the lungs. Also, pleural mesothelioma, the fast-growing and mostly untreatable cancer affecting the cells that line the chest cavity, is associated with mild to moderate exposure to asbestos.

Now, we understand the risks of being exposed to asbestos, and health and safety statutes ensure the well-being of people whose jobs put them in contact with this potentially lethal mineral. People who worked around job sites constructed with asbestos before such laws were passed, on the other hand, commonly spent their work days in sites where asbestos fibers were prevalent, and they typically were provided with very little training concerning how to minimize risks when dealing with the mineral. If the employer didn't provide showers, employees took asbestos fibers home with them in their clothes and hair, thereby exposing others in their household to this deadly toxin.

Diseases such as mesothelioma frequently take many years to develop, and the signs of these illnesses can be difficult to distinguish from those of other conditions, so those who worked at such plants in the past, as well as those who lived with them, are encouraged to talk with their doctors about their history of asbestos contact. Those who may have been exposed should seek the legal consultation of a mesothelioma attorney.

Sources

Bowker, Michael. Fatal Deception: The Terrifying True Story of How Asbestos is Killing America. New York: Touchstone, 2003.

Cabrera-Santiago, Manuel et al. "Prevalence of Asbestos-Related Disease Among Electrical Power Generation Workers in Puerto Rico." Presentation at American Public Health Association Annual Meeting, 2007.

Lane Memorial Library (2000, April 7). Hampton: A Century of Town and Beach, 1888-1988.
http://www.hampton.lib.nh.us/hampton/history/randall/chap9/randall9_3.htm