Arkansas Asbestos Sites

Arkansas has a scattering of facilities that have historically been associated with asbestos exposure. Those include oil processing facilities, power plants, paper mills, chemical companies and industries where heat is used in the manufacturing process. The El Dorado area is home to a number of oil refineries. Paper mills are in a number of towns where access to the pine forests coincided with the availability of rail lines fifty years ago or more, when there was no interstate highway system. 

Arkansas has enjoyed recent economic development that has ushered new industries into the state.  However much of the older industrial development occurred prior to the determination that asbestos is a toxic carcinogen. Since that process occurred in the mid 1980s, through most of the twentieth century asbestos was the insulation of choice for many blue collar industrial settings.

Health Risks of Asbestos Exposure

Asbestos fibers are flexible enough to be woven into textile form, thus making fabric for fire retardant protective clothing. It is resilient enough to be used as insulation coating on heated pipes, boilers and fittings in order to reduce heat exposure to workers near hot equipment. Unfortunately, the tiny fibers that provide these features also can do lethal damage when they are inhaled. Asbestos fibers can cause permanent scarring of the lungs and bring on asbestosis; or, they can lodge in the lining of the lung and cause mesothelioma cancer.

If you are concerned about your potential exposure to asbestos, talk with your doctor about what your job situation was and what the consequences of asbestos exposure might be.  Obviously, prolonged exposure is more dangerous than occasional exposure, although many family members of workers in mines or asbestos manufacturing facilities have come down with asbestos related diseases simply from exposure to the dust that the factory worker brought home.

Also, if you are having health problems as a result of asbestos exposure, it is wise to contact an experienced asbestos lawyer through our website and learn about the compensation that may be owed to you by asbestos product manufacturers.

Arkansas Jobsites with Asbestos Exposure Risk

The businesses listed below are jobsites where it is possible or probable that employees have been exposed to asbestos in years past.  Since it can take anywhere from five years to over twenty years after asbestos exposure for the symptoms of mesothelioma to appear, employees who have remained healthy  for years after leaving such jobsites may still be at risk.

• Reynolds Metal – Arkedelphia, AR
• Georgia Pacific Pulp & Paper – Ashdown, AR
• Kimberly Clark Mill – Ashdown, AR
• Nekoosa Edwards Corporation. – Ashdown, AR
• Alcoa Aluminum – Bauxite, AR
• Reynolds Metals Corporation, Hurricane Creek Plant – Bauxite, AR
• Natural Gas Pipline Corporation of America – Biggers, AR
• Bush Brothers Cannery – Blytheville, AR
• Amerace Corporation – Booneville, AR
• American Hard Rubber Corporation – Booneville, AR
• International Paper Corporation – Camden, AR
• Crossett Paper Mill – Crossett, AR
• Georgia Pacific Pulp & Paper – Crossett, AR
• Wilshire Corporation – DeQueen, AR
• Dierks Paper Mill – Dierks, AR
• American Oil Corporation – El Dorado, AR
• Amoco – El Dorado, AR
• Columbian Carbon Corporation – El Dorado, AR
• Dodson Insulation Company, Inc. – El Dorado, AR
• El Dorado Chemical Plant – El Dorado, AR
• John Monk Refinery – El Dorado, AR
• Lion Oil Company – El Dorado, AR
• Monsanto Chemical Company – El Dorado, AR
• Skelly Oil Company – El Dorado, AR
• Union Floors Carpet – El Dorado, AR
• Campbells Soup Plant – Fayetteville, AR
• University of Arkansas – Fayetteville, AR
• Flint Creek Power Station – Flink Creek, AR
• Ash Grove Cement – Foreman, AR
• Arkansas Power & Light Company – Forrest City, AR
• B.C. Bunn, Municipal Light Plant – Forrest City, AR
• Southwestern Bell Telephone Company – Forrest City, AR
• Municipal Steam Plant – Forrest City, AR
• Southwestern Bell – Forrest City, AR
• Ball Serv. Dist. & Eng. Company – Fort Smith, AR
• Ballman Cumming Furniture – Fort Smith, AR
• Dixie Cup Plant – Fort Smith, AR
• Southside High School – Fort Smith, AR
• Sparks Medical Center – Fort Smith, AR
• Triangle Insulation Company – Fort Smith, AR
• Soybean Solvent Ext Plant – Helena, AR
• Arkansas Power & Light Company – Hot Springs, AR
• Lake Catherine Power Plant – Hot Springs, AR
• St. Joseph Hospital – Hot Springs, AR
• Arkansas Power and Light Company, Lake Catherine – Jones Mill, AR
• Lake Catherine Power Station – Jones Mill, AR
• Reynolds Metals – Jones Mills, AR
• Arkansas State University – Jonesboro, AR
• City Water & Light Plant – Jonesboro, AR
• Northeast Arkansas Insulation Company – Jonesboro, AR
• Arisona Power & Light, Powerhouse – Lake Catherine, AR
• Arkansas Power & Light – Little Rock, AR
• Arkansas State University – Little Rock, AR
• Ashner Avenue Station – Little Rock, AR
• Breeding Insulation Company Incorporated – Little Rock, AR
• Eagle Home & Building Insulators – Little Rock, AR
• Federal Building Job, Ashner Avenue Team Track – Little Rock, AR
• Fischer Cement & Roofing Company – Little Rock, AR
• Olin Mathieson Chemical Corporation – Little Rock, AR
• Ozark Insulation Company – Little Rock, AR
• Swift & Company – Little Rock, AR
• Veterans Administration Hospital – Little Rock, AR
• Olin Mathieson Chemical Corporation – Magnolia, AR
• Southwestern Bell Telephone – Magnolia, AR
• Arkansas Power & Light Company – Malvern, AR
• General Sheet Metal Company – Malvern, AR
• Natural Gas Pipeline Company of America – Malvern, AR
• Cooper Tire & Rubber Company – Miller County, AR
• Burlington Mills – Monticello, AR
• Arkansas Kraft Paper Mill – Morrilton, AR
• Arkansas Power & Light – Newark, AR
• Ideal Cement Plant – Okay, AR
• Osceola Finishing Plant – Osceola, AR
• Arkansas Electric Cooperative Corporation – Ozark, AR
• John Monk Refinery – Pearson, AR
• Acme Brick Company – Peria, AR
• Dierks Paper Mill – Pine Bluff, AR
• Dravo Steel – Pine Bluff, AR
• General Water Works Corporation – Pine Bluff, AR
• General Water Works Corporation – Pine Bluff, AR
• Georgia Pacific Pulp & Paper – Pine Bluff, AR
• International Paper Company – Pine Bluff, AR
• U.S. Army Pine Bluff Arsenal – Pine Bluff, AR
• Arkansas Nuclear Plant – Prarie Grove, AR
• Arkansas Power & Light – Redfield, AR
• Natural Gas Pipeline Company of America – Searcy, AR
• Cross Oil – Smackover, AR
• Arkansas Power & Light Company – Stamps, AR
• Olin Mathieson Chemical Corporation – Stamps, AR
• Riceland Foods – Stuttgart, AR
• Cooper Tire & Rubber Company – Texarkana, AR
• Natural Gas Pipeline Company of America – Texarkana, AR
• Co-Op Processing Association of Van Buren – Van Buren, AR

Deaths from Mesothelioma & Asbestos Exposure in Arkansas

There are no demonstrably accurate statistics on the deaths caused by asbestos in this country that go back further than the late 1990s.  However a survey of public documents such as death certificates was conducted for the period from 1979 to 2000 to try and develop educated estimates for deaths caused by asbestosis and mesothelioma. Over that period there were 121 deaths due to asbestosis in Arkansas. Malignant mesothelioma killed between 155 and 274 Arkansas residents during that period.

In 1999 the federal government began keeping accurate statistics on mesothelioma deaths. From 1999 through 2004 there were 77 deaths in Arkansas due to mesothelioma. While that number is small, there will still be some people who were working prior to 1980 that will come down with asbestos cancer. The latency period for mesothelioma is a serious medical problem, because the symptoms don’t appear until the disease has matured – making early diagnosis and treatment for mesothelioma cancer nearly impossible.

Cancer Treatment Resources in Arkansas

In northwest Arkansas, there is an established cancer treatment facility in Fayetteville.

Highlands Oncology Group
3232 N. North Hills Blvd.
Fayetteville, Arkansas 72703
(479) 587-1700   or  
(479) 936-9900

In Little Rock:

Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute
4301 W. Markham St.
Little Rock, AR 72205
(501) 686-6000

In a nearby state, two of the nation’s best:

M.D. Anderson Cancer Center 
University of Texas
1515 Holcombe Boulevard
Houston, Texas 77030
Tel: (713) 792-2121
Fax: (713) 799-2210

Dan L. Duncan Cancer Center 
Baylor College of Medicine
One Baylor Plaza
Houston, Texas 77030
Tel: (713) 798-1354
Fax: (713) 798-2716