About Scott Air Force Base

A Military Installation Built During the Peak Asbestos Era

Scott Field opened in 1917 as a balloon and airship training post. After redesignation as Scott Air Force Base in 1948, construction expanded significantly through successive decades:

  • 1940s–1950s: Postwar barracks, administrative buildings, and mechanical infrastructure
  • 1960s–1970s: HVAC expansion, boiler plant modernization, and continued facility upgrades
  • 1980s–2000: Continuous maintenance of aging structures built when asbestos-containing materials were standard throughout military construction

The decades of Scott AFB’s heaviest construction — the 1940s through the early 1970s — align precisely with the period when asbestos-containing materials dominated American military and industrial building practice. Across the Mississippi River, identical materials and construction standards prevailed simultaneously at major Missouri and Illinois industrial facilities, including the Labadie Energy Center in Franklin County, the Portage des Sioux Power Plant in St. Charles County, and Granite City Steel in Madison County, Illinois.

Workers in the Mississippi River corridor frequently moved between military installations, power plants, chemical facilities, and steel mills over the course of a single career, accumulating potential exposure across multiple worksites. An asbestos attorney Missouri handling such cases must develop multi-facility exposure profiles to maximize trust fund claims and civil recovery.

Why Military Construction Used Asbestos-Containing Materials

Federal procurement standards required fire-resistant, heat-insulating, cost-effective materials. Asbestos-containing materials met all of those requirements — they were inexpensive, fire-resistant, thermally effective, and federally approved for military construction. The serious health hazards of inhaling asbestos fibers were suppressed, ignored, or unknown to the workers installing and maintaining these materials at the time.

Where Asbestos-Containing Materials Were Reportedly Located at Scott AFB

Building surveys, military construction records from the era, and accounts from workers at comparable installations indicate that Scott Air Force Base facilities reportedly contained asbestos-containing materials in the following locations:

Mechanical and Heating Systems:

  • Pipe covering on steam distribution lines throughout the base
  • Block insulation on high-temperature equipment
  • Insulating cement applied to boiler systems and steam piping
  • Gaskets and packing on valves and equipment connections
  • Refractory materials inside boilers and heating equipment

Building Structures:

  • Spray fireproofing on structural steel in hangars and large buildings
  • Resilient floor tiles and associated mastics in administrative buildings, barracks, and hangars
  • Ceiling tiles and suspended ceiling systems in office spaces
  • Textured wall coatings and acoustic spray finishes
  • Joint compound and drywall finishing materials

Electrical and Utility Infrastructure:

  • Insulating panels and arc chutes in electrical equipment
  • Wiring insulation and cable wrap
  • Panels in switchgear and control rooms

Roofing and Exterior:

  • Built-up roofing felts on older structures
  • Asbestos-cement panels and siding on buildings constructed before regulatory controls took effect

The base’s central heating and power plant systems required continuous insulation work on high-temperature steam lines. That ongoing maintenance created conditions in which asbestos fiber release may have occurred regularly during installation, repair, and removal activities.

To identify specific manufacturers and product brands documented at Scott AFB, consult the AsbestosIndex Product Crosswalk.

General Equipment at Scott Air Force Base

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 — 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:

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 ›

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

  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 — 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.

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:

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.