About Midway Airport Chicago Illinois

Construction During the Asbestos Era

Chicago Midway International Airport opened in 1926 as Chicago Municipal Airport, serving as the nation’s primary commercial aviation hub. Major expansion ran through the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s — the same decades when asbestos-containing materials dominated commercial construction across the United States, including the Missouri-Illinois industrial corridor along the Mississippi River.

Key dates:

  • 1926: Airport opens; initial terminal, hangar, and support facility construction begins
  • 1940s–1950s: Wartime and post-war expansion coincides with peak asbestos manufacturing and use by companies, and ceiling tile
  • 1947: Renamed Chicago Midway Airport following the Battle of Midway
  • 1950s: Reaches peak status as the world’s busiest airport; extensive terminal, concourse, and mechanical system expansion allegedly drives intensive asbestos-containing material installation by manufacturers
  • 1963: O’Hare International Airport opens; Midway’s passenger traffic declines, but maintenance and renovation work intensifies
  • 1981: Near-closure and subsequent revival trigger additional renovation and demolition activity
  • 2001: $743 million terminal renovation completed, requiring asbestos surveys and abatement under federal NESHAP regulations

Why the Construction Timeline Matters

Federal asbestos regulation essentially did not exist until:

  • OSHA established workplace asbestos standards in 1972, with enforcement beginning mid-decade
  • EPA issued initial asbestos manufacturing regulations in the late 1970s
  • NESHAP regulations for asbestos abatement were finalized in the 1990s

Before those dates, asbestos-containing materials were:

  • Considered a fire-resistant, heat-insulating, durable, and inexpensive building standard
  • Specified on virtually all commercial construction projects by manufacturers, and gaskets and packing
  • Installed by workers who received no warnings, no protective equipment, and no health information
  • Applied in dozens of product forms across every part of the facility

Thousands of construction, trades, and maintenance workers labored at Midway during this unregulated period. Many now carry diagnoses of mesothelioma, asbestosis, and other asbestos-related diseases. A skilled Illinois asbestos attorney can help determine whether your exposure history qualifies for compensation.

Workers affiliated with Heat and Frost Insulators Local 1 and Plumbers and Pipefitters UA Local 562, among other unions active in the Chicago area, may have been among those affected.

General Equipment at Midway Airport Chicago Illinois

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 Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (Illinois EPA) 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 Illinois EPA 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 ›

Critical Filing Deadline & Next Steps

Illinois law gives mesothelioma and asbestos-disease claimants 2 years from the date of medical diagnosis to file a personal-injury lawsuit (735 ILCS 5/13-202). For wrongful-death claims after an asbestos-related death, the filing window is 2 years from the date of death (740 ILCS 180/2). 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 Illinois 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.