Nanticoke Asbestos Exposure: Job Sites, Employers & Trades

Quick answer

Exposure around Nanticoke clusters in a handful of industries and trades, from the 1930s into the early 1970s
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) 508-6395 for a free review — we can usually tell quickly whether a site is one we know

Two railroads owned Nanticoke’s coal. The Pennsylvania Railroad’s Susquehanna Coal Company, which became Susquehanna Collieries in 1917, ran the breakers in town, including No. 7 in the Hanover Section, and the Sixth Shaft at Glen Lyon. On the Hanover side the Lackawanna’s coal department, Glen Alden from 1921, ran Truesdale and Loomis, whose No. 3 shaft stood beside the company power plant on the Susquehanna. In the 1920s the six collieries in and around the city employed about 9,000 men.

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 Nanticoke the recurring ones include the Susquehanna Collieries Company’s Nanticoke breakers and the Sixth Shaft colliery at Glen Lyon, which ran into the 1970s, the Glen Alden (originally Lackawanna railroad) collieries on the Hanover side — Truesdale and Loomis, whose breaker closed in 1967, the colliery power plant on the Susquehanna beside the Loomis shafts, and the boiler houses that served every breaker, and the town’s silk mills, clothing and dress factories, and its cigar plant.

The trades most often affected are breaker hands and miners, colliery boiler firemen and powerhouse crews, hoisting engineers, machinists and blacksmiths, pipefitters, electricians, and silk-mill and dress-factory 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 Nanticoke’s Honey Pot, Downtown and Hanover Section, West Nanticoke across the river, Sheatown, Glen Lyon and Alden in Newport Township, and Hanover Township 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.

Each breaker had a boiler house raising steam for its engines, pumps and hoists, and that equipment was lagged, packed and gasketed with asbestos-containing products. The men who fired and repaired it, along with the machinists and electricians in the colliery shops, worked in those rooms every day. Mining ended by 1973, and Earth Conservancy has been reclaiming the old Blue Coal lands since the 1990s. The records that matter now are the payroll and union files.

Call (570) 508-6395

Fees and costs in Nanticoke

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

Where in a Nanticoke colliery would asbestos have been?

Mostly in the machinery around the mine: the boiler houses that raised steam for every breaker, the hoisting engines and pumps, the steam lines, and the colliery power plant on the river. Packing, gaskets and pipe lagging were routine there.

My grandfather worked across the line in Hanover Township. Does that count as Nanticoke?

For a claim the township line does not matter. Truesdale and Loomis sat on the Hanover side but drew their workforce from Nanticoke, and what counts is the job, the years and the products, not the municipality.

Which Nanticoke employers come up most in asbestos claims?

The ones that recur locally include the Susquehanna Collieries Company’s Nanticoke breakers and the Sixth Shaft colliery at Glen Lyon, which ran into the 1970s, the Glen Alden (originally Lackawanna railroad) collieries on the Hanover side — Truesdale and Loomis, whose breaker closed in 1967, the colliery power plant on the Susquehanna beside the Loomis shafts, and the boiler houses that served every breaker. 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.