About Asbestos Exposure at St. Mary's Medical Center — Evansville
St. Mary’s Medical Center has served southwestern Indiana as a major regional healthcare institution for generations. Like virtually every large hospital built or substantially expanded between the 1930s and 1980s, St. Mary’s reportedly required massive, complex mechanical infrastructure to function: Central boiler plants — commonly equipped with, or Cleaver-Brooks equipment — generating high-pressure steam around the clock; Miles of steam distribution piping through underground tunnels and overhead chases; HVAC systems with ductwork, air-handling units, and plenum spaces; Fire-resistant construction throughout mechanical and utility areas; Expansion joints, valve banks, and equipment requiring continuous high-temperature insulation.
Hospitals of this era ranked among the most asbestos-intensive buildings in any Indiana community. They operated continuously, demanded reliable heat and hot water, required fireproofing on structural steel in mechanical spaces, and drew heavily on insulation products that manufacturers aggressively marketed to large institutional buyers throughout Indiana and the Midwest.
For context, Indiana’s industrial corridor — from Gary and East Chicago in the north to Evansville in the south — was one of the most heavily asbestos-saturated environments in the country during this period. The same Thermobestos, calcium silicate pipe insulation, and spray-applied fireproofing products documented in union grievance records and trust fund claims at U.S. Steel Gary Works, Bethlehem Steel Burns Harbor, and Inland Steel East Chicago were simultaneously being installed in Indiana’s largest hospitals, including regional medical centers in Evansville like St. Mary’s. For the tradesmen who built, maintained, repaired, and eventually demolished those systems, that infrastructure may have represented decades of repeated asbestos exposure — often while breathing air laden with respirable fibers from materials they handled every day.
General Equipment at Asbestos Exposure at St. Mary's Medical Center — Evansville
The equipment below represents the systems and infrastructure documented or typically present at this facility during the era when asbestos-containing materials were specified in industrial construction. This is general facility-equipment reference — not a legal attribution of any specific product, manufacturer, or exposure event to this facility. Material-category and manufacturer information is addressed in the AsbestosIndex Product Crosswalk linked under the records table below.
Documented Asbestos Evidence — Indiana
The records below are verified, state-documented asbestos removals at this facility. Each entry represents a regulated abatement project where the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) was notified under federal NESHAP rules, the work was logged, and the asbestos-containing material was confirmed and removed under regulated conditions. These are not allegations or estimates — they are paper records tying documented asbestos-containing material to this specific site.
No IDEM NESHAP abatement notifications have been identified for this facility in current public records. Per the framing above, absence of state-agency documentation should not be read as absence of asbestos — only as absence of a formal, regulated abatement event meeting reporting thresholds. Workers who recall encountering pipe insulation, block insulation, gaskets, or other asbestos-era construction materials at this facility may still have viable claims regardless of whether a state record exists.
Material Categories in Documented Records
The materials documented above (and similar asbestos-containing materials commonly encountered in records of this type) appear in the AsbestosIndex catalog with historical manufacturer and trust-fund information. Click a category to view manufacturers historically associated with that material:
Who May Have Been Exposed at Asbestos Exposure at St. Mary's Medical Center — Evansville
Boilermakers
Members of Boilermakers Local 374 and other Indiana boilermaker locals are alleged to have installed, repaired, and rebricked boiler equipment manufactured by, and Cleaver-Brooks in the central plant at St. Mary’s and comparable regional hospitals throughout southwestern Indiana. That work placed them in direct, repeated contact with and block insulation and high-temperature refractory materials alleged to have contained chrysotile asbestos. Boilermakers who scraped deteriorated block insulation from boiler exteriors or removed and replaced refractory materials in fireboxes and breeching may have inhaled asbestos fiber concentrations far exceeding what any manufacturer’s own internal testing showed to be safe — testing those manufacturers concealed from the trades for decades.
From the central plant, steam traveled through underground tunnels and overhead pipe chases to every corner of the hospital. Sectional insulation products — including Thermobestos, calcium silicate pipe insulation, and high-temperature pipe insulation — reportedly wrapped expansion joints, valve packings, pipe flanges, and elbow fittings throughout those distribution runs. Every time a pipefitter cracked open an insulated valve or scraped old insulation from a flange to perform a repair, that work may have generated clouds of respirable dust in enclosed, poorly ventilated spaces. Condensate return lines were routinely re-wrapped with sectional insulation products alleged to have contained amosite or chrysotile asbestos fiber. Pipefitters and steamfitters who worked at St. Mary’s may have been affiliated with UA-affiliated locals serving the Evansville area, or employed by southwestern Indiana mechanical contractors whose crews routinely moved between industrial and institutional job sites.
Mechanical rooms housing fan units, pumps, and heat exchangers reportedly were insulated with, or Armstrong block insulation and fitting covers alleged to have contained chrysotile or amosite asbestos. Ductwork was commonly lined or wrapped with asbestos-containing insulation blankets. Air-handling units and associated plenum spaces may have been treated with spray-applied spray-applied fireproofing or similar fireproofing products — exposing workers during installation, maintenance, and removal over the life of those systems. HVAC mechanics and maintenance personnel who serviced these systems at St. Mary’s across the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s may have inhaled asbestos fibers during routine work without any understanding of the risk they were taking.
Indiana — Filing Deadline & Next Steps
Indiana law gives mesothelioma and asbestos-disease claimants 2 years from the date of medical diagnosis to file a personal-injury lawsuit (Ind. Code § 34-11-2-4). For wrongful-death claims after an asbestos-related death, the filing window is 2 years from the date of death (Ind. Code § 34-23-1-1). The two deadlines run on separate tracks — preserving one does not extend the other.
The personal-injury clock runs from diagnosis, not from exposure. Mesothelioma latency is typically 20 to 50 years, so workers exposed in the 1950s–1980s are being diagnosed today.
Practical first steps
- Document what you remember. Pay stubs, W-2s, union cards, photographs, coworker names, and dates of employment. The WorkChain widget on this page can save a copy you can email yourself.
- Preserve medical records. Pathology reports, biopsy results, imaging, and pulmonary-function tests are central to both civil claims and trust-fund filings.
- Identify household members. Spouses who laundered work clothing and children of plant workers are eligible for secondary-exposure claims when diagnosed with an asbestos-related disease.
- Speak with an asbestos attorney with Indiana experience. The first conversation is free and confidential. Asbestos trust-fund claims and civil claims run on different tracks — both can be pursued in parallel.
Asbestos-Related Diseases — Indiana
Asbestos fiber exposure can cause several specific diseases that typically appear decades after the original exposure. The latency period — the gap between exposure and diagnosis — usually runs 20 to 50 years. That's why workers exposed in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s are receiving diagnoses today.
Mesothelioma
A rare, aggressive cancer that affects the lining of the lungs (pleural mesothelioma), abdomen (peritoneal), or heart (pericardial). Mesothelioma is almost exclusively caused by asbestos exposure, which is why a mesothelioma diagnosis often points directly to historical workplace exposure. Average latency from first exposure to diagnosis is 30-50 years.
Asbestosis
A chronic, non-cancerous scarring of lung tissue caused by inhaled asbestos fibers. Asbestosis causes progressive shortness of breath, persistent cough, and reduced lung function. It does not improve with treatment, and it is a recognized basis for compensation under most trust schedules and civil claims.
Lung Cancer
Asbestos exposure significantly increases the risk of lung cancer, particularly when combined with a history of smoking. Asbestos-related lung cancer is compensable under the same trust schedules and civil claim avenues as mesothelioma.
Other Recognized Diseases
Pleural plaques, pleural thickening, laryngeal cancer, ovarian cancer, and certain gastrointestinal cancers are also recognized as asbestos-related under various trust schedules and case-law authorities, though eligibility and proof requirements vary by claim type.
If you have any of these diagnoses and you worked at this facility, lived with someone who did, or were exposed in any documented capacity, you may have a claim worth pursuing. Speak with an attorney before assuming you don't qualify.
Cross-State & Regional Corridor Workers
Many boilermaker members rotated between job sites, including heavy industrial employers such as Cummins Engine in Columbus, Indiana, and coal-fired utility facilities throughout the region, where comparable high-temperature insulation materials were present. Workers who also spent time at industrial facilities elsewhere in Indiana — including the heavy manufacturing corridor to the north — may have faced compounding asbestos exposures that are directly relevant to the full scope of any asbestos lawsuit or trust fund claim.Data Sources — Indiana
Information about facility equipment, industrial materials, and occupational records referenced on this page is drawn from publicly available sources where applicable, including:
- EPA ECHO Facility Compliance Database — enforcement and compliance records for industrial facilities
- OSHA Establishment Search — federal workplace inspection history
- EIA Form 860 Plant Data — power-plant equipment and ownership records (where applicable)
- Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) NESHAP asbestos abatement notification records
- Published asbestos trial and trust fund records (publicly filed court documents)
- AsbestosIndex Product & Manufacturer Crosswalk — historical asbestos-containing product schedules linked to manufacturers
If specific equipment or product claims in this article are sourced from a non-public database, the source is identified parenthetically within the text above.