Upper Darby Asbestos Exposure: Job Sites, Employers & Trades

Quick answer

Exposure around Upper Darby clusters in a handful of industries and trades, from the 1930s 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 (610) 229-5135 for a free review — we can usually tell quickly whether a site is one we know

Upper Darby’s industrial past is older than its suburbs. Darby and Cobbs Creeks powered textile mills for more than a century: Thomas Kent bought the Rockbourne and Union mills in 1845, and the Kent Mills at Kellyville employed about 800 people in 1943 and ran until about 1955. Wolfenden & Shore at Cardington closed in 1928, and the Millbourne Mills came down in 1926 to make way for a Sears store. Mills like these ran on boilers, steam lines and dryers that were routinely insulated with asbestos-containing materials.

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 Upper Darby the recurring ones include the building and mechanical trades that put up and then serviced the township’s rowhouses, apartment blocks, schools, churches and the 69th Street commercial district, the car barns, yards and shops at the 69th Street terminal that kept the El, the Red Arrow trolleys and the Philadelphia & Western cars running, the Darby Creek textile mills at Kellyville and Cardington, the Kent Mills above all, which ran until about 1955, and General Electric’s switchgear works at 69th Street and Elmwood Avenue, just across Cobbs Creek in Southwest Philadelphia.

The trades most often affected are plasterers, steamfitters and heating mechanics, plumbers, insulators, roofers, floor and tile setters, electricians, transit carmen and shop mechanics, mill hands, and switchgear assemblers. 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 Drexel Hill, Highland Park, Stonehurst, Bywood, Kellyville, Cardington, Primos, Secane, Aronimink, Terminal Square, Millbourne and Clifton Heights 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 twentieth century put two other kinds of work at the township’s edge. At Terminal Square, the car barns and shops at 69th Street serviced the El, the Red Arrow trolleys and the Philadelphia & Western cars, where brakes, electrical gear and heating equipment were all regularly maintained. Just over Cobbs Creek, General Electric’s switchgear works at 69th Street and Elmwood Avenue, begun in 1921, employed more than 7,500 people at its peak, with a foundry and machine shop of its own.

Call (610) 229-5135

Fees and costs in Upper Darby

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

Upper Darby never had a big factory. Where would the asbestos have come from?

Mostly from building the place and keeping it heated. The township went from about 9,000 people in 1920 to about 85,000 by 1950, and the boilers, steam pipes, plaster and flooring that went into those homes and schools routinely contained asbestos.

My mother worked at the Kent Mills in Kellyville. Does a textile mill count?

It can. Mills ran on boilers, steam lines and dryers that were routinely insulated with asbestos-containing materials, and maintenance crews worked around them constantly. Her department and years are what the review looks at first.

Which Upper Darby employers come up most in asbestos claims?

The ones that recur locally include the building and mechanical trades that put up and then serviced the township’s rowhouses, apartment blocks, schools, churches and the 69th Street commercial district, the car barns, yards and shops at the 69th Street terminal that kept the El, the Red Arrow trolleys and the Philadelphia & Western cars running, the Darby Creek textile mills at Kellyville and Cardington, the Kent Mills above all, which ran until about 1955. 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.