About Southwestern Illinois Correctional Center East St. Louis Illinois

Facility Overview

Southwestern Illinois Correctional Center is a medium-security adult correctional facility operated by the Illinois Department of Corrections, located in East St. Louis in St. Clair County. The facility employed corrections officers, maintenance workers, and support staff across multiple decades of operation. Its construction era and building systems match the regional institutional pattern—facilities built with asbestos products manufactured by .

Why This Facility Contains Asbestos

Every large institutional facility constructed or substantially renovated before the mid-1970s was built and maintained with asbestos-containing construction materials and mechanical system components. Southwestern Illinois Correctional Center followed that pattern, using calcium silicate pipe insulation, pipe insulation, Thermobestos, spray-applied fireproofing, and high-temperature pipe insulation throughout its systems.

Correctional facilities required extensive mechanical infrastructure:

  • Boiler plants and steam distribution systems insulated with pipe insulation, calcium silicate pipe insulation, and boiler block insulation
  • Plumbing networks and hot water systems wrapped in Thermobestos (Carey-Canada) and magnesium carbonate pipe covering containing 15 percent asbestos
  • Electrical systems and switchgear manufactured by General Electric and Westinghouse with asbestos arc chutes and panel board liners
  • HVAC equipment and ductwork sealed with spray-applied fireproofing spray-applied fireproofing and asbestos-containing duct tape

Those systems drew on asbestos-containing products manufactured by , gaskets and packing, and throughout the construction eras that preceded federal regulation.

The Regulatory Gap That Exposed Workers

OSHA did not issue meaningful asbestos workplace standards until 1972. The EPA did not begin regulating asbestos in buildings until the late 1970s and 1980s.

Facilities constructed or substantially renovated before that regulatory era contain legacy asbestos materials in:

  • Mechanical systems insulated with pipe insulation and calcium silicate pipe insulation
  • Roofing systems with asbestos-containing felt and roofing cement
  • Flooring with Armstrong vinyl asbestos tiles (5–30% asbestos content) and W.F. Taylor asbestos-containing mastics
  • Wall systems with spray-applied fireproofing fireproofing manufactured by
  • Electrical insulation and components from General Electric and Westinghouse with asbestos arc chutes

Maintenance workers at Southwestern Illinois Correctional Center who worked in boiler rooms, mechanical spaces, utility corridors, and pipe chases during the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s may have encountered asbestos-containing materials on a routine basis. Heat and Frost Insulators Local 1 members, Plumbers and Pipefitters UA Local 562 members, and other skilled trades performed work on:

  • calcium silicate pipe insulation-insulated steam piping
  • Thermobestos pipe covering on hot water distribution systems
  • insulating cement applied to irregular fittings and valves
  • boiler insulation in the facility’s steam plant
  • spray-applied fireproofing-protected structural elements and mechanical components

Workers who performed maintenance during the 1990s also disturbed legacy asbestos materials that had not yet been abated—degraded calcium silicate pipe insulation insulation, crumbling Thermobestos pipe covering, and deteriorating spray-applied fireproofing fireproofing.

Missouri Filing Deadline: You have five years from diagnosis to file an asbestos personal injury claim. That window is not guaranteed to stay open. Act now.

Thousands of workers who maintained, repaired, and operated Southwestern Illinois Correctional Center—Heat and Frost Insulators Local 1 members, Plumbers and Pipefitters UA Local 562 members, Boilermakers Local 27, electricians, plumbers, carpenters, and custodial staff—may have been exposed to asbestos-containing materials including calcium silicate pipe insulation, Thermobestos insulation, spray-applied fireproofing fireproofing, and Armstrong vinyl asbestos floor tiles during the course of ordinary work. Family members of those workers suffered secondary exposure through contaminated work clothing.

If you or someone you love has been diagnosed with mesothelioma, asbestosis, lung cancer, or another asbestos-related disease after working at this facility, an experienced Illinois asbestos attorney can help you recover substantial compensation. This guide identifies the specific asbestos materials allegedly present at this facility, the trades placed at greatest risk, the diseases that result from exposure, and the legal options available to victims and their families.

General Equipment at Southwestern Illinois Correctional Center East St. Louis 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.