About Asbestos Exposure at Broadlawns Medical Center — Des Moines: What Tradesmen and Workers Need to Know
Broadlawns Medical Center, located on Hickman Road in Des Moines, is a public county hospital serving Polk County. Like virtually every major medical institution built or substantially renovated between the 1930s and 1980s, Broadlawns reportedly relied on asbestos-containing materials throughout its physical plant — concentrated in the mechanical systems that ran continuously, year-round.
Iowa hospitals ranked among the most asbestos-intensive buildings in any Iowa community. Three operational demands drove that density:
- Continuous steam heat to maintain sterile clinical environments
- Hot water systems serving facility operations without interruption
- Fire-resistant construction required throughout the structure by building codes
Meeting those demands meant boiler rooms packed with insulated equipment, miles of steam and condensate piping wrapped in thermal insulation, and structural materials selected specifically for fire resistance. Asbestos delivered all of those properties cheaply and effectively. Manufacturers marketed these products aggressively to Iowa hospital builders and contractors throughout this period.
Tradesmen who worked across multiple Iowa hospital and industrial facilities may have accumulated substantial asbestos exposure before Broadlawns-specific exposures are even considered. If you worked at multiple Iowa sites and have been diagnosed, an Iowa asbestos lawyer can help document your complete exposure history — but that documentation work must occur before your filing deadline expires. Once your two-year window closes under Iowa Code § 614.1(2), no attorney can recover compensation for you, regardless of the strength of your evidence.
Steam Boilers and Thermal Insulation Systems
The central boiler plant at Broadlawns functioned as the mechanical heart of the entire facility. High-pressure steam boilers — commonly manufactured by, or — required thermal insulation on every exposed surface:
- Boiler shells and steam drums
- Headers and associated piping
- Valve assemblies and fittings
- Surrounding structural surfaces
Workers who opened, repaired, or worked near these systems may have been exposed to airborne asbestos fibers released during routine operations and maintenance.
Iowa boilermakers and pipefitters working in hospital boiler plants of this era frequently moved between hospital projects and heavy industrial facilities throughout central and eastern Iowa. If your work history includes:
- Broadlawns boiler plant work
- Other Iowa hospital mechanical systems (University of Iowa Hospitals, Mercy Hospital Cedar Rapids, St. Luke’s Hospital Cedar Rapids)
- Industrial steam plants (Quaker Oats Cedar Rapids, John Morrell Sioux City, Rockwell Collins Cedar Rapids)
…then you may have accumulated exposure at multiple sites. Each site represents a potential additional defendant and an additional asbestos trust fund claim.
Union dispatch records documenting your work history at these facilities are preserved for only limited periods. An asbestos attorney in Iowa must obtain those records while they still exist. Once your two-year deadline passes under Iowa Code § 614.1(2), no attorney can access them on your behalf or reconstruct your exposure history for compensation purposes.
Steam Distribution Piping and Thermal Insulation Products
Steam distribution systems ran through pipe chases, ceiling plenums, mechanical rooms, and service corridors connecting major building zones. Standard insulation for high-temperature piping — pipe covering, block insulation, and fitting covers — was manufactured using chrysotile and amosite asbestos. Products reportedly installed on steam lines at Iowa hospital facilities during this period included:
- Thermobestos** pipe covering
- calcium silicate pipe insulation** block and pipe insulation
- Armstrong Cork insulation products
- thermal products for high-heat applications
These same product lines were reportedly used across Iowa’s institutional construction sector, meaning tradesmen who worked at Broadlawns often encountered identical materials at other Iowa worksites. Each additional worksite represents a potential additional defendant in your civil case and an additional trust fund claim — but only if your attorney has time to identify and document those claims before your filing deadline expires.
HVAC Systems, Fireproofing, and Floor Materials
Additional asbestos-containing materials reportedly used throughout Broadlawns included:
- Duct connections sealed with asbestos rope and cloth
- Spray-applied fireproofing on structural steel ( spray-applied fireproofing**, products)
- Vinyl-asbestos floor tiles by
- Mechanical room ceiling tiles by , ceiling tile, and
- HVAC duct insulation by pipe insulation** and competitive formulations
General Equipment at Asbestos Exposure at Broadlawns Medical Center — Des Moines: What Tradesmen and Workers Need to Know
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.
Documented Asbestos Evidence — Iowa
The records below are verified, state-documented asbestos removals at this facility. Each entry represents a regulated abatement project where the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (Iowa DNR) 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 Iowa DNR 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:
Iowa — Filing Deadline & Next Steps
Iowa law gives mesothelioma and asbestos-disease claimants 2 years from the date of medical diagnosis to file a personal-injury lawsuit (Iowa Code § 614.1(2A)). For wrongful-death claims after an asbestos-related death, the filing window is 2 years from the date of death (Iowa Code § 614.1(2)). 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
- 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.
- Preserve medical records. Pathology reports, biopsy results, imaging, and pulmonary-function tests are central to both civil claims and trust-fund filings.
- 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.
- Speak with an asbestos attorney with Iowa 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 — Iowa
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 — Iowa
Information about facility equipment, industrial materials, and occupational records referenced on this page is drawn from publicly available sources where applicable, including:
- EPA ECHO Facility Compliance Database — enforcement and compliance records for industrial facilities
- OSHA Establishment Search — federal workplace inspection history
- EIA Form 860 Plant Data — power-plant equipment and ownership records (where applicable)
- Iowa Department of Natural Resources NESHAP asbestos abatement notification records
- Published asbestos trial and trust fund records (publicly filed court documents)
- AsbestosIndex Product & Manufacturer Crosswalk — historical asbestos-containing product schedules linked to manufacturers
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.