About Carter Carburetor Corporation St. Louis Missouri

Carter Carburetor Corporation operated at 2840 Spring Avenue on St. Louis’s south side. Founded in 1909, the company manufactured fuel-delivery components for the American auto industry, supplying General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler across decades of peak domestic vehicle production.

At peak production, Carter Carburetor employed several thousand workers across a campus that included machine shops, foundry operations, heat-treating areas, electroplating departments, steam pipe and boiler systems, industrial furnaces, and manufacturing and assembly lines. Each of those systems, in the era when this plant operated at full capacity, relied on asbestos-containing materials.

Ownership evolved over time: 1909–1970s: Carter Carburetor Corporation original operations; Mid-century: Acquired by ACF Industries; 1980s: Sold to American Motors Corporation (AMC), then to Federal-Mogul; Closure: The Spring Avenue site later underwent environmental remediation.

Peak operations ran from the 1930s through the mid-1970s — the identical period when asbestos-containing materials were standard throughout American heavy manufacturing. Workers employed during those decades may have been exposed to asbestos-containing materials daily, across careers spanning 20 to 40 years.

General Equipment at Carter Carburetor Corporation St. Louis Missouri

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 Carter Carburetor Corporation St. Louis Missouri

Insulators carried the heaviest documented exposure at industrial facilities of this type. Members of Heat and Frost Insulators Local 1 (St. Louis, MO) and other union locals working at Carter Carburetor may have been exposed through installation, maintenance, and removal of asbestos-containing pipe covering — including calcium silicate insulation, pipe and block insulation, and pipe covering products — block insulation, fitting cement, and insulating blankets; generating airborne asbestos fiber during application and removal of those materials, allegedly at high concentrations; decades of work without adequate respiratory protection; and disturbing deteriorating asbestos-containing insulation during routine maintenance.

Pipefitters working on Carter Carburetor’s steam and process piping systems may have been exposed through disturbing existing asbestos-containing pipe insulation while cutting or modifying pipe runs; working alongside insulators whose activities generated airborne fibers; handling asbestos-containing rope packing and gasket materials used to seal valves and flanges; and replacing steam valve packing and flange gaskets, reportedly involving direct contact with asbestos-containing materials. Members of Plumbers and Pipefitters UA Local 562 (St. Louis, MO) and related unions worked these systems.

Boilermakers, electricians, maintenance mechanics and millwrights, sheet metal workers (HVAC), laborers and janitorial staff, and office workers and supervisors also encountered asbestos-containing materials through their respective work activities — boilermakers through contact with asbestos-containing refractory materials and boiler insulation; electricians through electrical insulation components and work near deteriorating asbestos-containing building materials; maintenance personnel throughout the entire plant encountering gaskets, packing materials, and insulation; sheet metal workers through duct insulation and joint compounds; laborers through cleanup of contaminated debris and dry sweeping of floors where asbestos dust had settled; and administrative personnel through time spent on production floors and in buildings with deteriorating asbestos-containing materials.

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.