About Rohm and Haas Company Chicago Illinois
Rohm and Haas Company is a specialty chemicals manufacturer founded in 1909 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Over the following decades it became one of the largest specialty chemical producers in the United States, manufacturing:
- Acrylic monomers and polymers (including Plexiglas-related compounds)
- Specialty resins and adhesives
- Agricultural chemicals and pesticides
- Electronic and semiconductor materials
- Paints, coatings, and sealants
- Ion exchange resins
- Industrial solvents and intermediates
Rohm and Haas reportedly maintained manufacturing and/or distribution operations in the Chicago metropolitan area as part of its Midwest industrial footprint. In 2009, The Dow Chemical Company acquired Rohm and Haas for approximately $18.8 billion. Dow subsequently merged with DuPont in 2017. Those corporate transactions created successor liability for historical asbestos exposures — meaning the companies that absorbed Rohm and Haas inherited its legal obligations to injured workers.
Chicago’s industrial infrastructure made it a natural hub for chemical plant operations throughout the 20th century:
- Extensive railroad networks for transporting chemical raw materials
- Heavy industrial zones along the Calumet River and Lake Michigan shoreline
- Access to Great Lakes shipping
- A large, skilled union trades workforce — including members of Heat and Frost Insulators Local 1, Plumbers and Pipefitters UA Local 562, and other building trades unions
Chemical plants require massive infrastructure: steam systems, high-pressure reactors, distillation columns, heat exchangers, boilers, and miles of insulated piping. For most of the 20th century, that infrastructure was built and maintained with asbestos-containing materials as standard industry practice.
Workers at Rohm and Haas facilities in Chicago may have encountered asbestos-containing materials across several distinct eras:
1930s–1945: Construction and Early Operations Era — Wartime industrial expansion drove large-scale construction of chemical plants across the country. Thermal insulation installed during this period was supplied predominantly by manufacturers such as and, including products such as calcium silicate pipe insulation and other asbestos-based insulations. Workers involved in original plant construction and early facility operations may have been exposed to asbestos-containing materials installed during this period.
1945–1965: Post-War Expansion Era — The post-World War II economic expansion produced rapid growth in chemical manufacturing capacity. Rohm and Haas reportedly expanded product lines and manufacturing capacity substantially during this period. New construction — reactors, piping systems, boiler capacity — allegedly involved asbestos-containing materials from suppliers including, gaskets and packing.
1965–1975: Maintenance and Renovation Era — Scientific evidence about asbestos hazards mounted during the late 1960s and early 1970s, but asbestos-containing materials remained in widespread use at chemical plants. Maintenance and repair work on existing asbestos-containing insulation, gaskets, and packing continued throughout this period. Insulators from Heat and Frost Insulators Local 1 and Local 27, pipefitters from Plumbers and Pipefitters UA Local 562 and Local 268, and other trades workers removing and replacing pipe insulation, boiler insulation, and gasket materials may have faced substantial exposure to asbestos-containing products such as Thermobestos, pipe insulation, and spray-applied fireproofing.
1975–1985: Regulatory Transition Era — OSHA established initial asbestos permissible exposure limits (PELs) in 1972. EPA began regulating asbestos under the Clean Air Act. But regulation of new installations did nothing to neutralize the asbestos-containing materials already installed throughout these facilities. Some asbestos products — including high-temperature pipe insulation, Superex, and other trademarked materials — reportedly remained on the market and in active use into the 1980s. Abatement and demolition work, often performed without adequate protective equipment, may have generated substantial asbestos fiber releases during this period.
1986 and Beyond: Abatement and Legacy Exposure Era — EPA’s Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act (AHERA) in 1986 required facilities to identify and manage asbestos-containing materials. Workers involved in abatement, renovation, and demolition of older chemical plant infrastructure may have been exposed to asbestos-containing materials installed during earlier decades — exposure events that can give rise to claims filed decades later.
General Equipment at Rohm and Haas Company 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.
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:
Who May Have Been Exposed at Rohm and Haas Company Chicago Illinois
Insulators from Heat and Frost Insulators Local 1 and Local 27 who worked at Rohm and Haas facilities in Chicago may have faced the most direct asbestos-related exposure of any trade at these chemical plants. Their work included:
- Applying pipe insulation — including asbestos-containing block insulation, asbestos cement, and asbestos cloth wrapping — to steam lines, process lines, and other pipes throughout the facility
- Removing and replacing worn or damaged insulation, a process that allegedly released asbestos fibers directly into the breathing zone
- Fabricating insulation fittings by cutting asbestos-containing block insulation to fit around valves, flanges, elbows, and other piping components
- Troweling asbestos-cement mixtures over pipe and equipment insulation as finishing coats
Insulators who worked at Rohm and Haas facilities in Chicago are alleged to have worked with products including:
- calcium silicate pipe insulation block insulation (/)
- pipe covering and block insulation
- Thermobestos asbestos insulation
- pipe insulation asbestos-containing products
- Unarco asbestos block insulation
Pipefitters and steamfitters from Plumbers and Pipefitters UA Local 562 and Local 268 who worked at Rohm and Haas may have been exposed to asbestos-containing materials from multiple sources:
- Cutting into and disturbing asbestos-insulated pipe systems during maintenance and repair
- Working alongside insulators who were simultaneously applying or removing asbestos-containing insulation
- Installing and replacing asbestos-containing gaskets on flanged pipe connections, heat exchangers, and process equipment
- Using asbestos rope packing in valves and pump glands
- Applying asbestos-containing pipe compounds from manufacturers such as gaskets and packing
Chemical plants carry extraordinary volumes of piping — steam, process chemicals, cooling water, and other fluids at varying temperatures and pressures. Pipefitters spent substantial portions of their careers in environments where asbestos-containing insulation was present and routinely disturbed.
Boilermakers at Rohm and Haas facilities in Chicago performed work that may have exposed them to asbestos-containing materials, including:
- Installing and repairing boiler insulation — boilers at chemical plants were typically insulated with heavy asbestos-containing block insulation and asbestos-containing cement products
- Removing and replacing refractory linings in boilers, furnaces, and fired heaters that reportedly contained asbestos-containing refractory materials
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
- 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.
- Preserve medical records. Pathology reports, biopsy results, imaging, and pulmonary-function tests are central to both civil claims and trust-fund filings.
- 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.
- 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:
- EPA ECHO Facility Compliance Database — enforcement and compliance records for industrial facilities
- OSHA Establishment Search — federal workplace inspection history
- EIA Form 860 Plant Data — power-plant equipment and ownership records (where applicable)
- Illinois Environmental Protection Agency NESHAP asbestos abatement notification records
- Published asbestos trial and trust fund records (publicly filed court documents)
- AsbestosIndex Product & Manufacturer Crosswalk — historical asbestos-containing product schedules linked to manufacturers
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.