When I was in high school, and throughout the first 3 years of college (during summers, and winter break) I worked for a roofing company. The crew that I was on installed mostly large hot-asphalt roofs (aka hot-tar) which included tearing off the old roof and installing a new roof to replace it. As hot-asphalt can't be applied when it's wet out, when it rained we would stock under-construction houses with drywall, install insulation, stock shingles on roofs, and install composition shingles -- not any fun, but it kept us busy. We couldn't run asphalt in the rain as the asphalt was about 650 degrees (Farenheit) in the kettle -- (that big, black, noisy, loud, hot piece of machinery you see on the ground that has a pipe up to the roof) -- as it would vaporize and boil when the slightest bit of moisture touched it -- 650 degrees is just slightly more than 3X the temperature of boiling water - so it's hot!.
There was no OSHA at the time (or if there was, we were so far off of the beaten path in a small town in Oregon that my employer wasn't concerned with it) - so few, if any, safety measures were in place. We often worked with no shirts on, no protective gear other than gloves and boots, and never any safety harnesses -- not a big deal on hot-asphalt roofs, as they're generally fairly flat, but on the steeped pitched roofs of the old Victorian homes on which we worked, safety harnesses would have been a good idea! I worked on a small pitched roof on the side of a grain elevator once - about 7-8 stories up (see photo below), and the guy with whom I was working, a very experienced roofer, scrambled after a piece of equipment that started to slide and he almost went with it -- not very smart and could have cost him his life -- no harnesses that day either. When I was about 17 years old, I once packed a 30-ft ladder on my shoulder, up the side of that same grain elevator, via a built-in vertical ladder embedded in the side of the building. Again, no safety equipment -- lucky I'm still alive!
There was no OSHA at the time (or if there was, we were so far off of the beaten path in a small town in Oregon that my employer wasn't concerned with it) - so few, if any, safety measures were in place. We often worked with no shirts on, no protective gear other than gloves and boots, and never any safety harnesses -- not a big deal on hot-asphalt roofs, as they're generally fairly flat, but on the steeped pitched roofs of the old Victorian homes on which we worked, safety harnesses would have been a good idea! I worked on a small pitched roof on the side of a grain elevator once - about 7-8 stories up (see photo below), and the guy with whom I was working, a very experienced roofer, scrambled after a piece of equipment that started to slide and he almost went with it -- not very smart and could have cost him his life -- no harnesses that day either. When I was about 17 years old, I once packed a 30-ft ladder on my shoulder, up the side of that same grain elevator, via a built-in vertical ladder embedded in the side of the building. Again, no safety equipment -- lucky I'm still alive!
Photo Courtesy of Sara's Old Photos - Click Photo Above for their FaceBook Page
In any event, what prompted this post was an email that I received from a group in Massachusetts that is working to educate the roofing public regarding the dangers of older roofing materials that may have contained asbestos, and could be a contributing factor to a roofer contracting mesothelioma. I don't know anything about this organization or the information above/beyond what is contained on this website (link below), but if you know a roofer that might be affected/afflicted, they may want to avail themselves of this information:
- Click Here for Additional Information from the Mesothelioma Home Group
- Click Here for Additional Information Regarding Occupational Exposure to Asbestos - The Lanier Law Firm
Update: June, 2024 - I had a doctor's appointment for an item that is a common affliction for men of my age, and one of the questions that the doctor asked me prior to my exam was "Have you ever been exposed to toxic chemicals" to which I responded "Not that I can recall" and his follow up question (without knowing anything about me) was "How about any exposure to roofing materials?". Bingo! Both installing new roofs and tearing off old roofs, the latter which undoubtedly contained asbestos. Something to watch for the any future issues, unfortunately.
- Click Here for Additional Information from the Mesothelioma Home Group
- Click Here for Additional Information Regarding Occupational Exposure to Asbestos - The Lanier Law Firm
Update: June, 2024 - I had a doctor's appointment for an item that is a common affliction for men of my age, and one of the questions that the doctor asked me prior to my exam was "Have you ever been exposed to toxic chemicals" to which I responded "Not that I can recall" and his follow up question (without knowing anything about me) was "How about any exposure to roofing materials?". Bingo! Both installing new roofs and tearing off old roofs, the latter which undoubtedly contained asbestos. Something to watch for the any future issues, unfortunately.
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