About Collinsville Community Unit School District 10 Illinois

Collinsville Community Unit School District 10 serves the Collinsville, Illinois area in Madison County — a region with deep industrial roots along the Mississippi River corridor shared with Missouri. The district’s facilities include buildings reportedly constructed between the late 1940s and the 1970s, during a post-war construction boom when asbestos-containing materials (ACM) were not just common — they were specified by architects, mandated by building codes, and required by insurers.

Asbestos was used because it worked: it resisted heat, deadened sound, stopped fire, and held up in high-traffic institutional buildings. Pipe coverings, boiler block, floor tile, ceiling tile, duct wrap, and spray-applied fireproofing on structural steel — all of it reportedly went into school buildings of this era. The tradesmen who installed, maintained, and repaired those systems were reportedly never told what they were breathing.

The following boilers and pressure vessels were registered with the Illinois Department of Labor for this facility, with installations ranging from a 1941 Buckeye unit through 2001, documenting substantial steam and heating system infrastructure across multiple building locations including high schools, boiler rooms, gymnasiums, vocational shops, and kitchen facilities.

General Equipment at Collinsville Community Unit School District 10 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.

Central Boilers View crosswalk › Utility Tunnels View crosswalk › Pipe Insulation View crosswalk › HVAC Air Handlers View crosswalk › Suspended Ceilings View crosswalk › Vinyl-Asbestos Floor Tile View crosswalk › Auditorium Curtains View crosswalk › Science Lab Hoods 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.

Asbestos abatement records are official government documents. They establish the type and quantity of ACM removed, the exact locations where materials were present, the contractors who performed the work, and the dates of abatement. When those dates overlap with your employment period, you have a documented factual foundation for your claim.

Where to Obtain These Records

Your mesothelioma attorney can subpoena these records directly, but the primary agencies holding them include:

  • Illinois EPA Bureau of Air — Springfield, IL
  • Illinois Department of Public Health — asbestos program records
  • U.S. EPA Region 5 NESHAP Records — Chicago, IL
  • Collinsville CUSD 10 Facilities Department — historical maintenance and abatement files
  • Madison County Building and Zoning Department — permit and abatement records

Don’t attempt to gather these on your own and hope for cooperation. An attorney with subpoena authority gets different results than a claimant making a phone call.

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 Collinsville Community Unit School District 10 Illinois

The workers at greatest risk at Collinsville CUSD 10 facilities were the skilled tradesmen who kept these buildings running over decades. Boilermakers are alleged to have worked directly with asbestos rope gaskets, boiler block insulation, and refractory cement during maintenance and repair cycles. Members of Boilermakers Local 27 (Kansas City, MO) and Heat and Frost Insulators Local 1 (St. Louis, MO) who reportedly serviced school boilers are alleged to have done so without adequate respiratory protection, potentially generating significant airborne fiber concentrations during teardown and repack operations.

Pipefitters — Members of Plumbers and Pipefitters UA Local 562 (St. Louis, MO) and UA Local 268 are alleged to have handled deteriorating pipe lagging reportedly containing chrysotile and amosite asbestos — including products calcium silicate pipe insulation and pipe covering. Aged insulation that crumbles on contact doesn’t release a little dust. It reportedly releases fiber clouds that linger in unventilated mechanical rooms for hours.

Insulators applied and stripped asbestos-containing products calcium silicate pipe insulation and high-temperature pipe insulation. Cutting, fitting, and removing these materials is alleged to have generated among the highest fiber concentrations of any construction trade — a fact documented in industrial hygiene studies and confirmed in decades of asbestos litigation.

HVAC Mechanics are reported to have disturbed duct insulation and equipment gaskets — including products high-temperature pipe insulation — during system maintenance, repair, and replacement. Work in confined plenum spaces and mechanical rooms reportedly amplified fiber concentrations with no meaningful air movement to dilute them.

Electricians pulling wire through walls and ceilings reportedly disturbed ACM in products such as ceiling tile tiles and spray-applied fireproofing spray fireproofing, particularly in older wings of school buildings. The electrician’s exposure is often underdocumented — not because it was minor, but because the fiber release happened incidentally, not as the primary task.

Millwrights and In-House Maintenance Workers are alleged to have disturbed aged, friable asbestos materials across decades of routine facility upkeep — repairing or replacing products floor tiles and insulation. Unlike a contractor who finishes a job and leaves, the in-house maintenance worker went back into those same spaces day after day, year after year.

Secondary Exposure — Family Members: Family members who laundered work clothing brought home from these job sites may also have been exposed to asbestos fibers. Household contact exposure is recognized in mesothelioma litigation and has supported successful claims.

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.

Cross-State & Regional Corridor Workers

Collinsville Community Unit School District 10 serves the Collinsville, Illinois area in Madison County — a region with deep industrial roots along the Mississippi River corridor shared with Missouri. Members of Boilermakers Local 27 (Kansas City, MO) and Heat and Frost Insulators Local 1 (St. Louis, MO) who reportedly serviced school boilers are alleged to have worked at the facility. Members of Plumbers and Pipefitters UA Local 562 (St. Louis, MO) and UA Local 268 are alleged to have handled pipe insulation at the site.

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.