Hazleton Asbestos Exposure: Job Sites, Employers & Trades

Quick answer

Exposure around Hazleton clusters in a handful of industries and trades, from the 1940s into the 1980s
You do not need to know a product name — knowing the employer and the years is enough to start
Bystander exposure counts: people who never handled asbestos but worked near those who did
Household members exposed to dust carried home on work clothes may have a claim of their own
Call (570) 227-8432 for a free review — we can usually tell quickly whether a site is one we know

Hazleton’s industrial history has two layers, and asbestos sits in both. The coal layer centres on the Hazleton Shaft Colliery, the largest in the Lehigh field, whose underground workings were lost to flooding in 1955 while its breaker kept processing strip-mined coal into the 1980s; on Coxe Brothers at Drifton, whose founder Eckley Coxe invented a traveling-grate boiler stoker; and on the Harwood steam electric station, built at a mine mouth and one of the companies merged into PP&L in 1920.

Asbestos exposure is local in a way most injuries are not. It happened at particular buildings, on particular shifts, in particular trades, and the same handful of employers come up again and again in a given town. Around Hazleton the recurring ones include the Hazleton Shaft Colliery and the Lehigh Valley Coal Company’s other operations, the Harwood steam electric station at the mouth of the Harwood mine, Coxe Brothers’ collieries and shops at Drifton, and the factories that came after the mines — Electric Auto-Lite from 1947, then the CAN DO parks at Valmont and Humboldt.

The trades most often affected are miners and breaker hands, boiler-house and powerhouse crews, machinists and millwrights, plant maintenance mechanics, electricians and factory production workers. That reflects where the material actually was: wrapped around steam and process lines, packed into boilers and furnaces, cut into block and cement, sitting in gaskets and packing at every pump and valve, sprayed onto structural steel for fireproofing. The people who installed it, repaired it, and above all tore it out took the heaviest doses, because removal is what puts fiber into the air.

Bystander exposure is the part people discount about themselves. Someone who never touched insulation but worked in the same shop while insulators cut and fitted it all day was breathing the same air. Office and clerical staff in older industrial buildings sometimes have real exposure histories for the same reason. If the honest answer is "I didn't work with it, but I worked around people who did," that is worth a conversation rather than a shrug.

Exposure also travelled home. Dust carried on coveralls into houses across West Hazleton, Hazle Township, Harwood, Lattimer, Drifton, Humboldt, Jeddo, Freeland and McAdoo exposed spouses and children, most often through laundry. Those household members can have claims in their own right, built on the worker's job history rather than their own.

You are not expected to arrive with product names. Almost nobody remembers whose gaskets were in a pump in 1968. The employer, the job title, and a rough span of years are enough to start; identifying the products is our job, and it is done through supplier records, co-workers, and the histories of the sites themselves. Every case is different, and past results do not guarantee a similar outcome.

The factory layer arrived deliberately. Residents helped pay for the Electric Auto-Lite plant in 1947, and from 1956 CAN DO built industrial parks at Valmont — whose first tenant, in 1957, made foam rubber — and later Humboldt. Add the Duplan silk mill and the Lehigh Valley Railroad shops and a Hazleton career could cross half a dozen workplaces. Each one is documented on its own.

Call (570) 227-8432

Fees and costs in Hazleton

Consultation and initial case review, at home or at the hospital	$0
Mesothelioma or asbestos claim, handled on contingency	No fee unless there is a recovery — the percentage is agreed in writing before representation begins
Requesting employment, union, and military records on your behalf	Included in the case review

No fee unless there is a recovery. Any fee is a percentage agreed in writing before representation begins.

Questions, answered

Hazleton is known for mining. Why are factories on this list?

Because after the mines closed the city brought factories in deliberately — Auto-Lite in 1947, then the CAN DO industrial parks from the late 1950s — and many Hazleton careers were spent in those plants rather than underground.

My grandfather worked at Drifton for the Coxe company. Is that relevant?

It can be. Colliery operations ran boilers, steam lines and machine shops, and the men who fired and maintained them handled insulation and packing. Drifton is one of the older names on a Hazleton history.

Which Hazleton employers come up most in asbestos claims?

The ones that recur locally include the Hazleton Shaft Colliery and the Lehigh Valley Coal Company’s other operations, the Harwood steam electric station at the mouth of the Harwood mine, Coxe Brothers’ collieries and shops at Drifton. That is not an exhaustive list, and a site not named here can still support a claim — the review is where that gets checked.

I never handled asbestos myself, only worked nearby. Does that count?

Often yes. Bystander exposure — working in the same space while others cut, fitted, or removed asbestos — is a recognized exposure route, because the fiber is airborne.

I don't know which products were used. Can I still bring a claim?

Yes. Very few people remember product names decades later. The employer, job title, and approximate years are enough to begin; identifying manufacturers is done through supplier records, site histories, and co-workers.