About Revere Copper And Brass Detroit Michigan

History and Operations

The Revere Copper and Brass Detroit Rolling Mill was one of Michigan’s largest nonferrous metals processing facilities throughout much of the 20th century. Located in the Detroit metropolitan area — a region whose industrial workforce included workers at the Ford River Rouge Complex in Dearborn, Chrysler Jefferson Assembly on the east side of Detroit, GM Hamtramck Assembly, Buick City in Flint, and Packard Electric in Warren — the Revere Rolling Mill was part of a dense network of heavy manufacturing operations where asbestos-containing materials were reportedly ubiquitous throughout the mid-20th century.

The facility:

  • Processed raw copper and scrap metal through smelting and refining operations
  • Passed heated copper and alloys through rolling mills to produce sheet, strip, rod, and tube products
  • Operated annealing furnaces, blast furnaces, and continuous mechanical drawing equipment
  • Employed generations of skilled union tradespeople and laborers, including members of Heat and Frost Insulators Local 1, Pipefitters Local 636 (Detroit), Asbestos Workers Local 25, UAW Local 600 (Dearborn), UAW Local 235, and Plumbers and Pipefitters UA Local 562
  • Underwent multiple expansions and modernization projects throughout its operational history

The extreme heat and corrosive chemical environment created a continuous need for thermal insulation, refractory materials, and high-temperature gaskets — product categories that relied heavily on asbestos-containing materials throughout most of the 20th century.

Why Asbestos-Containing Materials Were Used at Rolling Mills

Industrial copper rolling operations created conditions that drove widespread use of asbestos-containing materials:

Extreme Heat Applications:

  • Furnaces and heat-treating equipment operated at temperatures from several hundred to over 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit
  • Refractory brick allegedly containing chrysotile and/or amosite asbestos reportedly lined furnace walls, floors, and arches
  • Castable refractory materials — poured cement-like compounds — reportedly contained asbestos fibers to improve strength and thermal resistance
  • Magnesia block, calcium silicate block insulation, and insulating cement pipe coverings Industries, and Refractories may have contained asbestos-containing materials

Annealing Furnaces:

  • Central to the copper forming process; controlled heating and cooling improved metal workability
  • Furnace construction relied heavily on asbestos-containing refractory brick and castable refractory
  • Workers who maintained, repaired, or rebuilt furnace linings for equipment supplied by may have been exposed routinely

Drawing Equipment and Lubricating Systems:

  • Wire and tube drawing operations may have used asbestos cloth blankets and asbestos-wrapped dies
  • Asbestos-containing packing materials were allegedly used around drawing equipment to manage heat and protect components

Steam Systems, Boilers, and Mechanical Equipment:

  • Boilers, steam lines, valves, flanges, pumps, and associated systems may have been insulated with asbestos-containing materials including:
  • Asbestos-containing pipe covering and lagging products (including Thermobestos) and
  • calcium silicate pipe insulation brand calcium silicate block insulation/, which allegedly contained asbestos-containing materials (documented in product liability records from similar industrial facilities)
  • Asbestos-containing rope and tape at flanges and expansion joints from gaskets and packing
  • Asbestos-containing gaskets on flanges, valve bonnets, and mechanical connections

General Equipment at Revere Copper And Brass Detroit Michigan

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.

Recovery Boilers View crosswalk › Power Boilers View crosswalk › Digesters View crosswalk › Dryer Felts View crosswalk › Steam Traps View crosswalk › Pipe Insulation View crosswalk › Pulp Lines View crosswalk › Lime Kilns View crosswalk ›

Documented Asbestos Evidence

The records below are verified, state-documented asbestos removals at this facility. Each entry represents a regulated abatement project where the Michigan EGLE (Environment, Great Lakes & Energy) (Michigan EGLE) 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 Michigan EGLE 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 ›

Who May Have Been Exposed at Revere Copper And Brass Detroit Michigan

Insulators (Heat and Frost Insulators)

Insulators — union members of Heat and Frost Insulators Local 1 and Asbestos Workers Local 25, the Michigan locals that represented insulation tradespeople throughout Detroit and the surrounding region — faced among the highest asbestos exposures at any industrial facility. Their daily work may have involved:

  • Installing, repairing, and removing thermal insulation on pipes, boilers, furnaces, and equipment
  • Cutting, fitting, and sawing asbestos-containing pipe covering and calcium silicate pipe insulation block insulation
  • Applying asbestos-containing insulating cement allegedly containing formulations
  • Working with asbestos-containing materials at close range

Insulators affiliated with these Michigan locals reportedly worked not only at the Revere Detroit Rolling Mill but across the region’s major industrial sites — including the Ford River Rouge Complex in Dearborn and Chrysler Jefferson Assembly — bringing consistent product exposures from facility to facility. Cutting and disturbing these materials may have generated clouds of airborne asbestos dust that insulators breathed directly.

If you worked as an insulator at the Revere Rolling Mill and have been diagnosed with mesothelioma or another asbestos-related disease, Michigan’s three-year filing deadline is already running. Contact an asbestos attorney in Michigan today.

Pipefitters and Steamfitters

Pipefitters and steamfitters working on steam, process, and utility piping systems — including members of Pipefitters Local 636 (Detroit) and Plumbers and Pipefitters UA Local 562 — may have encountered:

  • Routine proximity to pipes insulated with Thermobestos and other pipe covering products
  • Cutting into insulated lines, installing new valves, and replacing flanges
  • Maintenance in pipe tunnels and mechanical rooms where asbestos-containing insulation dust may have accumulated
  • Handling gaskets and packing asbestos-containing gaskets and packing materials

Members of Pipefitters Local 636 reportedly worked across multiple southeastern Michigan industrial facilities, meaning that a worker’s cumulative asbestos exposure history may span the Revere Rolling Mill and other regional plants. Wayne County asbestos lawsuit claims account for multi-site occupational exposure histories. Michigan’s three-year statute of limitations runs from your diagnosis date — do not delay.

Boilermakers

Boilermakers at the facility may have:

  • Constructed, maintained, and repaired boilers and pressure vessels
  • Repaired or replaced boiler insulation allegedly containing asbestos-containing materials
  • Worked inside boiler fireboxes allegedly lined with asbestos-containing refractory materials
  • Replaced asbestos-containing rope and gaskets on boiler manways and flanges

Maintenance Mechanics and Millwrights

General maintenance workers may have:

  • Serviced and repaired rolling mills, drawing equipment, annealing furnaces, and other process machinery
  • Encountered asbestos-containing materials in thermal insulation, gaskets, and packing
  • Repaired equipment near or within furnace areas where refractory brick and castable refractory dust may have accumulated
  • Accumulated long-term asbestos exposures over decades of employment

UAW-represented maintenance workers — including members of UAW Local 600 (Dearborn) and UAW Local 235 — who transferred between facilities or performed contract maintenance work across southeastern Michigan industrial sites may have accumulated asbestos exposures at multiple locations. Michigan asbestos settlement values account for multi-facility exposure histories. A mesothelioma or lung cancer diagnosis means Michigan’s three-year filing deadline is already running.

Electricians

Electricians at industrial facilities of this era may have encountered asbestos-containing materials in multiple forms:

  • Asbestos-insulated electrical wire and cable
  • Asbestos cloth reportedly used for fireproofing around electrical panels in furnace areas
  • Ambient asbestos dust created by other trades disturbing nearby insulation
  • Bystander exposures while working in areas where insulators and maintenance workers were actively removing or repairing asbestos-containing materials

Laborers and Helpers

General laborers and trades helpers may have:

  • Cleaned up debris and hauled materials
  • Worked alongside skilled tradespeople during maintenance and construction
  • Been exposed to asbestos-containing dust without any meaningful warning of the health hazard

Supervision and Engineering

Foremen, supervisors, and plant engineers may have regularly walked through active work areas where asbestos-containing materials were being disturbed — accumulating bystander exposures over the length of their careers that are just as legally compensable as direct trade exposures.

Critical Filing Deadline & Next Steps

Michigan law gives mesothelioma and asbestos-disease claimants 3 years from the date of medical diagnosis to file a personal-injury lawsuit (MCL § 600.5805(13)). For wrongful-death claims after an asbestos-related death, the filing window is 3 years from the date of death (MCL § 600.5852). 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 Michigan 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

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

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.