The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company is well known as one of the nation’s largest tire manufacturers, but few people know that Goodyear produced numerous products that were tainted with asbestos. Workers at Goodyear facilities, as well as those who purchased their products and individuals employed in industries that used Goodyear goods, all faced the potential of exposure and the risk of asbestos-related diseases. Countless individuals who’ve traced their mesothelioma and related illnesses back to Goodyear’s products have pursued legal remedies against the company in pursuit of justice and financial recovery.
The History of Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company
The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company was established in 1898, when its founders secured financial backing to launch their tire manufacturing venture in Akron, Ohio. The company joined the rubber industry boom that had transformed Akron since the early 1870s, when the first rubber manufacturers recognized the city’s strategic advantages. By the early 20th century, Goodyear had established itself as a leading tire producer and began expanding its operations significantly. The corporation diversified its product offerings to meet growing industrial demands across multiple sectors.[1]
The company’s product range extended far beyond automobile tires to include industrial products, aviation components, and commercial goods. This diversification included adhesives, gaskets, brake systems for both automotive and aircraft applications, industrial equipment, conveyor belts, hoses, floor tiles, and specialized rubber products for various industries.[2] Many of these products contained asbestos.
Goodyear’s growth mirrored Akron’s rise as the rubber capital of the world. The city attracted multiple major rubber manufacturers, and Goodyear became one of the largest employers in the region, providing jobs to thousands of workers throughout the 20th century.
In 1969, the company reorganized its gasket production operations, transferring this business line along with all related equipment to Goodyear Canada, Inc. The Canadian subsidiary operated this division through 1973. The corporation further restructured in 1976 when it consolidated its industrial and aircraft brake operations into a subsidiary known as Goodyear Aerospace Corporation. This entity specialized in brake systems for military and commercial aircraft as well as heavy industrial applications.[2]
Goodyear has maintained manufacturing facilities across the United States and internationally, becoming one of the world’s most recognized tire and rubber product brands. The company’s operations have touched virtually every sector requiring rubber components, from transportation and construction to aerospace and industrial manufacturing.
How Did Goodyear Use Asbestos?
Goodyear manufactured tires and rubber goods alongside adhesives, sealants, floor coverings, gaskets, and aircraft parts. The production methods for many of the company’s products depended on asbestos due to its fibrous nature and resilience, and this meant that employees who worked in the company’s facilities were constantly exposed to the toxic mineral.
Factory workers received bulk asbestos in large containers, then combined it with additional materials to create strong, flexible products. Asbestos was prevalent throughout various stages of production, including curing, vulcanizing, extruding, milling, mixing, storing, and quality control.[1]
A particularly notable source of asbestos exposure came from tire mold plaster. Records indicate that Goodyear incorporated asbestos into the plaster used for tire molds for nearly 30 years, from 1976 through 2005. This was long after the known health hazards of the mineral had been widely documented.
The threat posed by asbestos in Goodyear facilities was not limited to the products the company manufactured. Goodyear’s factory structures contained asbestos in walls, ceilings, and throughout equipment insulation. Steam pipes and chemical conduits were wrapped with asbestos and fortified with asbestos-laden coverings, packing, gaskets, and cement. Some lawsuits filed against Goodyear by former workers sickened by their environment have described asbestos particles falling from insulated ceiling pipes so heavily that they resembled snowfall.
Exposure was not limited to those who directly handled the asbestos-containing products or in the plant and manufacturing areas. Administrative staff working in office areas were also vulnerable. Despite not directly handling products themselves, they were exposed to the fibers via ventilation systems, as well as to the microscopic particles that covered the clothing of employees who passed through their work areas. Prior to the 1980s, asbestos permeated virtually all areas of the company’s facilities.
What Goodyear Products Contained Asbestos?
Goodyear manufactured and distributed numerous asbestos-containing items throughout its decades of operation. These included:[1]
- Adhesives containing asbestos (manufactured during the 1970s through the early 1980s)
- Brake linings for both industrial and automotive applications spanning from the 1930s through 1984
- Caliper-style aircraft brakes incorporating asbestos linings were produced from 1939 through 1984
- Cranite gasket material manufactured through 1969
- Durabla gasket products dating from 1913 until 1969
- Engine mount components with asbestos elements made between 1974 and 1978
- Floor tiles produced from 1952 until 1978
- Furnace door hoses manufactured between 1959 and 1976
- Goodyearite asbestos gasket sheet material and packing produced from 1914 through 1969
- Steam hoses manufactured from 1931 until 1970
- Protective burn shields containedasbestos dating to 1962.
In addition to the asbestos-contaminated products that it manufactured, Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company also acquired asbestos-containing brake linings from external suppliers. Company personnel installed these purchased components at various retail operations from the 1930s extending into the 1990s, long after knowledge of the mineral’s health dangers became widely known.
Who Was Affected by Goodyear Asbestos Products?
Goodyear distributed its asbestos-laden products to individual consumers as well as commercial enterprises whose personnel encountered exposure during use. From flooring materials and conveyor equipment to brake systems and aircraft components, anyone installing, servicing, or removing these items risked inhaling airborne asbestos particles.
Professions facing asbestos exposure from Goodyear products included:
- Automotive repair technicians
- Brake installation specialists
- Aircraft maintenance personnel
- Shipyard workers
- Factory workers across various industries
- Construction trades workers
- Electrical workers
- Equipment installers
Transportation belts and the belt drive systems used in conveying operations represented an especially significant exposure source of exposure, and were cited by many of the individuals who filed suit against the company.
Secondary Asbestos Exposure Risk from Goodyear
Beyond those experiencing workplace exposure to asbestos through Goodyear products and facilities, the family members of these workers also faced danger from fibers transported home on hair, skin, or work garments.
This tragic phenomenon, referred to as secondary asbestos exposure, has resulted in numerous documented cases of mesothelioma and other asbestos-related diseases. In many cases, spouses and children of workers were sickened after spending years washing their asbestos-contaminated work clothing. Family members also suffered exposure through embracing husbands and fathers returning from work, or from fibers that were carried into the home and embedded in household carpeting and furniture.
Environmental Consequences of Goodyear Operations
Asbestos utilization at Goodyear manufacturing sites reached such extensive levels that it created environmental hazards beyond the workplace. The Miami, Oklahoma, facility, which closed in 1986, left behind substantial asbestos contamination in multiple structures throughout the site.[3]
As a result, the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality mandated the removal and abatement of the toxic material in 2019. Environmental Protection Agency assessments revealed that, beyond building contamination, large quantities of asbestos-containing materials had been left behind in demolition debris that had been scattered across roughly 16,000 cubic yards of the property.
The agency executed an emergency cleanup operation involving removal, disposal, wet demolition of remaining structures, and transport to an approved disposal site. It is unclear how many of the area’s residents may have encountered environmental asbestos before its removal.
Legal Claims Against Goodyear and Other Akron Rubber Manufacturers
Akron, Ohio, achieved its goal of becoming the global rubber capital, hosting major manufacturers including Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., B.F. Goodrich, General Tire, and Firestone. These four corporations employed tens of thousands of workers throughout the years, all experiencing significant asbestos exposure from factory insulation installed from the early 1900s forward.[1]
As increasing numbers of Akron rubber and tire workers received asbestos-related disease diagnoses over subsequent decades, local courts processed thousands of claims against Johns Manville and other suppliers, alongside workers’ compensation suits directed at the tire and rubber companies themselves.
Travelers Insurance, serving as Johns Manville’s primary insurer, established an initial national trust fund valued at $80 million. However, most settlement amounts proved modest, typically ranging between $800 and $20,000 depending on the diagnosed illness.
Additional lawsuits followed. Though the companies initially denied having used asbestos in their production processes, testimony from rubber industry workers was compelling. Evidence presented at the trials included company newsletter photographs marking the anniversary of an Asbestos Industrial Products Division, depicting workers handling asbestos without respiratory protection. Eventually, company insurers received orders to pay settlements and interest totaling $500 million.
Today, an estimated 62,000 lawsuits are pending against Goodyear throughout the United States, with cases proceeding in Ohio, Texas, Florida, New York, and Pennsylvania. Victims claim that the corporation failed to adequately warn or safeguard employees from asbestos dangers.
Notable verdicts include:
- A $40.1 million judgment was awarded to J. Walter Twidwell, who developed mesothelioma after suffering asbestos exposure during nearly 20 years of Navy service as a boiler tender and fireman. The jury agreed that his exposure and illness resulted from dust released while manipulating Durabla and Cranite gaskets manufactured by Goodyear during his service aboard seven vessels.[4]
- A New York jury awarded $22 million to the families of Eugene McCarthy and Walter Koczur, both of whom died from lung cancer. The consolidated trial pointed to asbestos-containing sheet gasket material that had been manufactured by Goodyear and Goodyear Canada during the 1960s and 1970s. Mr. Koczur had encountered the gaskets while working as a steamfitter between 1969 and 1973 at multiple Buffalo-area job sites, while Mr. McCarthy had faced exposure as a heavy equipment engine mechanic during the late 1960s and early 1970s.[5]
- Steven Watts served aboard Navy vessels during the early 1970s. His shipboard responsibilities included replacing gaskets on pumps, valves, and boilers in engine rooms, changing flange gaskets hundreds of times, with 95 percent of the pump work involving these components. In a mesothelioma lawsuit that included Goodyear as a named defendant, Mr. Watts described removing equipment and components by using scrapers or chisels, and how it generated airborne asbestos-containing dust that he repeatedly inhaled. He identified those gaskets as having been Excelsior, Goodyear, and Durabla products, which he described as having been brittle and deteriorated.[6]
Despite extensive litigation, tens of thousands of affected workers having been diagnosed with mesothelioma and related conditions, and numerous verdicts against it, Goodyear never filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy or established an asbestos trust fund.
Justice for Those Harmed by Goodyear Asbestos Exposure
Goodyear has been identified in numerous personal injury lawsuits filed by asbestos exposure victims and their surviving family members. Asbestos suppliers who provided Goodyear with raw materials and asbestos-containing products have also faced legal action.
If you worked at Goodyear facilities or with any Goodyear products and you’ve been diagnosed with mesothelioma, asbestosis, asbestos-related lung cancer, or any other asbestos-related illness, you may be eligible to pursue legal action against the company. You may also qualify to file claims with asbestos trust funds established by asbestos companies that supplied contaminated products to Goodyear.
One of the most important things a mesothelioma victim can do for themselves and their family members is to contact an experienced asbestos attorney. These knowledgeable legal professionals possess extensive experience and substantial resources in all matters pertaining to asbestos exposure. They can help you identify all sources of your asbestos exposure, guide you on the optimal path forward for you and your family, and get you the justice you deserve. Contact them as soon as possible, as there are strict time restrictions for how long you have to pursue legal remedies after being diagnosed.
References
View All References
