When hurricane Katrina hit the coasts of Louisiana and Texas, many buildings and homes were totally destroyed. Many of these buildings and homes were older and were built before 1980. Most buildings and homes that were built before 1980 were built with materials that contained significant amounts of asbestos. Asbestos was once the preferred building material because of its heat resistant and insulating properties. Now that many of these older buildings and homes were demolished during hurricane Katrina in Texas and Louisiana, it is believed that there may be higher levels of asbestos exposures in these areas, making Louisiana and Texas a couple of hot spots for asbestos contamination.

Many of the materials used to build the houses and buildings may contain very high levels of the asbestos fibers. Some of the potentially dangerous materials include asbestos-cement corrugated sheet, asbestos-cement flat sheet, asbestos pipeline wrap, roofing felt, vinyl-asbestos floor tile, asbestos-cement shingle, millboard, asbestos-cement pipe, and vermiculite-attic insulation. These are only a sampling of the pieces of debris that are of high concern in these areas.

In addition to the asbestos in the areas hit by the hurricane, there are several other hot spots where asbestos exposure is high. Some hot spots in the state of Louisiana include American International Refining, Inc., Atlas Processing Company (division of Pennzoil), BP Oil Company, Calcasieu Refining Company, Calumet Lubricants Company, Canal Refining Company, CAS Refining, Citgo Petroleum Corporation, Conoco, Exxon Company, Kerr McGee Refining Corporation, Marathon Oil Company, Mobil Oil Corporation, Murphy Oil USA Incorporated, Phibro Refining Incorporated, Placid Refining Company, Shell Oil Company, and Star Enterprise.

Certain hot spots in the state of Texas include Amoco Oil Company, Chevron USA, Citgo, Coastal Refining & Marketing Incorporated, Crown Central Petroleum Corporated, Diamond Shamrock Corporated, El Paso Refining, Exxon, Fina Oil & Chemical Company, Howell Hydrocarbons, Koch Refining Company, LaGloria Oil & Gas Company, Leal Petroleum, Liquid Energy, Lyondell Petrochemical Company, Marathon Oil Company, Mobil Oil Corporation, Phibro Refining Incorporated, Phillips 66, Pride Refining Incorporated, Shell Oil, Southwestern Refining, Star Enterprise, Trifinery, and Valero Refining.

All of these companies can be considered asbestos hot spots where extreme caution should be used. If you are employed by any of these companies, make sure they are implementing proper procedures and precautions to protect you from harmful asbestos exposure.