About ICI Explosives

ICI Explosives operated a major industrial facility in Joplin, Missouri, a city in Jasper County with a long history in industrial manufacturing and mining. ICI Explosives USA Inc. was a subsidiary of Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI), one of the world’s largest chemical and industrial companies, manufacturing and distributing commercial explosives, blasting agents, and related chemical products. The Joplin facility reportedly served the mining, quarrying, construction, and demolition industries. Like other industrial manufacturing plants of its era, the facility may have included:

  • Extensive steam and hot water piping systems
  • Large boilers and pressure vessels
  • Process heating equipment and exchangers
  • Mechanical systems requiring thermal insulation and fireproofing

The ICI Explosives facility allegedly incorporated asbestos-containing materials (ACMs) throughout its construction and maintenance systems — standard industrial practice for decades, now understood to cause mesothelioma, asbestosis, and lung cancer in workers who installed, maintained, disturbed, or worked near these materials. —

General Equipment at ICI Explosives

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.

Industrial Boilers View crosswalk › Process Piping View crosswalk › Pipe Insulation View crosswalk › Block Insulation View crosswalk › Valves View crosswalk › Gaskets View crosswalk › Pumps View crosswalk › Heat Exchangers View crosswalk › Cooling Equipment View crosswalk ›

Documented Asbestos Evidence

The records below are verified, state-documented asbestos removals at this facility. Each entry represents a regulated abatement project where the Missouri Department of Natural Resources (Missouri DNR) 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 Missouri DNR 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:

Thermal System Insulation View crosswalk › Asbestos-Cement Board View crosswalk › Pipe Insulation View crosswalk › Roofing & Flashing View crosswalk › Spray Fireproofing View crosswalk › Floor Tile & Mastic View crosswalk › Ceiling Tile View crosswalk › Gaskets & Packing View crosswalk ›

Who May Have Been Exposed at ICI Explosives

Because the documented asbestos-containing materials at this facility consisted primarily of pipe insulation, multiple occupational groups whose work brought them into contact with these systems may have been exposed. Asbestos exposure at industrial facilities rarely stayed confined to a single trade — airborne fibers do not respect job classifications — and any experienced asbestos attorney Missouri will evaluate exposure across every trade that worked at this site. —

Pipefitters and Pipe Insulators (Pipe Coverers)

Members of Heat and Frost Insulators Local 1 (St. Louis, MO) and similar locals working at this facility faced some of the most direct potential exposure:

  • Installed, maintained, and repaired asbestos-containing pipe insulation products — including materials reportedly, and ceiling tile — throughout the facility
  • Cut, sawed, and shaped asbestos-containing insulation to fit pipe configurations, reportedly generating significant airborne fiber concentrations in the immediate work area
  • Removed and replaced damaged or deteriorated pipe insulation during routine maintenance shutdowns
  • Worked in confined spaces — pipe chases, tunnels, and mechanical rooms — where airborne fibers may have concentrated with little ventilation

With more than 40,000 linear feet of asbestos-containing pipe insulation documented at this facility, workers who regularly worked with or near this piping system may have experienced repeated, sustained exposure across the full length of their employment. —

Thermal and Acoustic Insulators

Insulators throughout the facility may have been exposed when:

  • Applying asbestos-containing insulation products — including those reportedly manufactured by and — to pipes, boilers, vessels, and ducts
  • Cutting and fitting pre-formed asbestos-containing insulation sections
  • Repairing damaged insulation on hot surfaces, which could cause dry, friable material to crumble and release fibers
  • Removing old insulation to access underlying equipment for repair

Insulators historically worked with some of the highest-asbestos-content products in industrial settings — a fact well documented in trust fund and trial records. —

Boilermakers

Boilermakers working on the facility’s boilers, pressure vessels, and steam systems may have been exposed through:

  • Work on boiler refractory and insulating materials allegedly containing asbestos
  • Maintenance and repair of steam lines and associated asbestos-containing insulation
  • Work in boiler rooms and mechanical spaces where asbestos-containing materials were present throughout the surrounding infrastructure
  • Disturbing asbestos-containing gaskets — potentially manufactured by gaskets and packing or — and packing during boiler overhaul and repair

Members of Boilermakers Local 27 in Missouri and other regional locals were reportedly involved in such activities at facilities of this type. —

Maintenance Workers and Millwrights

General maintenance workers and millwrights performing routine and emergency repairs throughout the facility may have been exposed when:

  • Disturbing or working near asbestos-containing insulation during maintenance activities
  • Performing repairs on systems with asbestos-containing components
  • Removing or replacing insulation to access underlying equipment — then reinstalling it, or leaving disturbed material in place for others to encounter
  • Working in mechanical rooms, pipe tunnels, and confined spaces where asbestos-containing materials were present in the surrounding structure

Plant Operators and Shift Supervisors

Workers responsible for day-to-day plant operations may have been exposed through sustained proximity to asbestos-containing materials during their regular rounds — monitoring systems in boiler rooms and mechanical spaces, troubleshooting equipment problems, and responding to emergency situations near asbestos-containing piping and insulation. Bystander exposure of this kind is well recognized in occupational disease litigation and is compensable under Missouri law. —

Welders and Metalworkers

Welders and metalworkers performing

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Critical Filing Deadline & Next Steps

Missouri law gives mesothelioma and asbestos-disease claimants 5 years from the date of medical diagnosis to file a personal-injury lawsuit (Mo. Rev. Stat. § 516.120). For wrongful-death claims after an asbestos-related death, the filing window is 3 years from the date of death (Mo. Rev. Stat. § 537.100). 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

  1. 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.
  2. Preserve medical records. Pathology reports, biopsy results, imaging, and pulmonary-function tests are central to both civil claims and trust-fund filings.
  3. 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.
  4. Speak with an asbestos attorney with Missouri 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

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.

Data Sources

Information about facility equipment, industrial materials, and occupational records referenced on this page is drawn from publicly available sources where applicable, including:

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.