HiTemp Block
Throughout the twentieth century until asbestos warnings were issued in the U.S. in the late 1970s, the Philip Carey Manufacturing Corporation was one of the nation’s leader producers of asbestos products. Based in Ohio, this company manufactured a large array of asbestos-containing products, mostly for commercial or industrial use.
Many of these products were marketed by Carey Manufacturing under the “HiTemp” brand name. The HiTemp moniker referred to the product’s ability to resist high temperatures, thanks to the presence of asbestos, the most widely-used insulation material of the twentieth century. Their most popular item was known as HiTemp Block, a brick-shaped hard fiber and mineral insulation that was probably used in hundreds of thousands of homes and commercial buildings throughout the U.S. and beyond. The HiTemp Blocks were inexpensive and durable and were marketed as such by Carey. The campaign worked and the block insulation was a big seller.
But as early as the 1960s, a connection between the asbestos-containing block insulation and cancer was already being detected. There is documentation that a doctor named Thomas Mancuso, who prepared an occupational health report for Philip Carey Manufacturing, tried to tell company owners that asbestos was causing myriad health problems among their factory workers and the families of these workers.
"The question has been raised within the company as to why medical problems relating to cancer and asbestos were not recognized before. Actually, they were recognized, but the asbestos industry chose to ignore and deny their existence,” Mancuso said in a 1963 report. A year later, Mancuso wrote: "There is an irrefutable association between asbestos and cancer. This association has been established for cancer of the lung and for mesothelioma. There is suggestive evidence... for cancer of the stomach, colon and rectum, also. There is substantial evidence that cancer and mesothelioma have developed in environmentally exposed groups, i.e., due to air pollution for groups living near asbestos plants and mines. Evidence has been established for cancer developing among members of the household. Mesotheliomas have developed among wives, laundering the work clothes of asbestos workers. Substantial evidence has been presented that slight and intermittent exposures may be sufficient to produce lung cancer and mesothelioma. There should be no delusion that the problem will disappear or that the consumer or working population will not become aware of the problem and the compensation and legal liability involved."
Philip Carey chose to ignore these warnings and continued manufacturing HiTemp products, including HiTemp Block, until around 1980. Carey’s connection with Mancuso was severed after the report was written. The result of ignoring the facts about asbestos meant that myriad individuals developed mesothelioma from exposure to HiTemp products.
If you worked in the Carey factory or were involved with the installation of HiTemp Block and have developed mesothelioma, you have legal rights. For more details, order our free mesothelioma information packet.
Last modified: September 23 2008.
