About Anna Hospital
Anna Hospital sits in Union County, in the southernmost reach of Illinois — a region where the construction and industrial trades drew heavily from the same union halls serving the Mississippi River industrial corridor that stretches from St. Louis through East St. Louis, Granite City, and the Metro East.
Hospital buildings of this period ran round-the-clock steam heat, industrial boiler plants, miles of insulated piping, and fire-resistant construction throughout. Asbestos was the industry standard for all of it. It was cheap, effective, and everywhere.
Anna Hospital’s central boiler plant reportedly operated high-pressure steam boilers manufactured by companies, or — units alleged to have required thick block insulation and refractory cement to contain temperatures exceeding 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Steam lines ran from that boiler room through pipe chases, tunnels, and mechanical rooms throughout the building. Every elbow, valve, flange, and fitting was a potential asbestos exposure point.
Hospital construction of this era routinely incorporated multiple asbestos products into the building envelope itself: spray-applied fireproofing reportedly applied to structural steel beams and decking, Armstrong Cork floor tiles and mastic adhesive installed in corridors and utility areas, Acoustic ceiling tiles manufactured by companies and allegedly containing chrysotile asbestos, Transite board rigid cement-asbestos composite used as fireproofing panels around mechanical equipment and duct penetrations, HVAC duct insulation and gaskets from various manufacturers reportedly containing woven or compressed asbestos cloth, boiler refractory cement and block applied in combustion chambers and breeching, and asbestos-containing valves and valve packing and seals found throughout steam distribution systems.
General Equipment at Anna Hospital
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 — Illinois
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 Anna Hospital
Boilermakers — members of Boilermakers Local 27 headquartered in St. Louis and serving both Missouri and Southern Illinois job sites — are alleged to have installed and maintained boiler units with asbestos refractory cement, brick, and block insulation at Anna Hospital and comparable facilities throughout the region, worked inside boiler combustion chambers during maintenance and repair where refractory materials were in friable condition, handled asbestos rope packing and gaskets around boiler seams and fittings, and worked in direct contact with friable materials in unventilated or poorly ventilated boiler rooms for shifts that lasted eight to twelve hours.
Pipefitters and Steamfitters — members of Plumbers and Pipefitters UA Local 562 — the St. Louis-based local representing steamfitters and pipefitters across the Missouri-Illinois region — and comparable downstate locals are alleged to have cut and fitted asbestos-covered pipe sections for steam, hot water, and condensate lines using Thermobestos, calcium silicate pipe insulation, and comparable products, removed and replaced pipe insulation during system upgrades and emergency repairs by breaking apart hardened calcium silicate block by hand, and installed and removed asbestos rope gaskets and valve packing on flanges and seals throughout steam distribution systems. Boilermakers, pipefitters, insulators, electricians, and maintenance workers who built, serviced, and renovated this facility may have faced substantial, repeated occupational asbestos exposure over many working years.
Illinois — 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 — Illinois
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
Anna Hospital sits in Union County, in the southernmost reach of Illinois — a region where the construction and industrial trades drew heavily from the same union halls serving the Mississippi River industrial corridor that stretches from St. Louis through East St. Louis, Granite City, and the Metro East. Tradesmen who worked Anna Hospital often also worked Missouri-side facilities and Illinois River facilities in the same career.
Local 27 members regularly crossed the river to work both Missouri and Illinois jobs. A career that included Anna Hospital may also have included boiler work at Labadie, Portage des Sioux, Monsanto, or Granite City Steel — each of which reportedly used the same refractory and insulation products in vastly larger quantities.
UA Local 562 dispatched workers to hospital and industrial jobs on both sides of the Mississippi River. A pipefitter whose work included Anna Hospital may have also worked Missouri power plants and industrial facilities where the same insulation products appeared in vastly larger quantities.
Data Sources — Illinois
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.