Why Mesothelioma Cases Occur in South San Francisco
South San Francisco's industrial identity was forged in its early years as a meatpacking and manufacturing hub along the Southern Pacific mainline. Southern Pacific Railroad operated major maintenance and repair yards in the South San Francisco area, where workers overhauled locomotives and rail cars insulated with asbestos throughout. Boilermakers, machinists, carmen, and maintenance workers in these yards disturbed asbestos daily while repairing the insulation in steam locomotives, passenger cars, and freight equipment.
Columbia Steel Company (later USS Columbia Steel, a subsidiary of U.S. Steel) operated a major steel plant in South San Francisco that produced structural steel, wire rope, and other steel products. Steel furnaces and metallurgical operations relied on asbestos refractory materials, furnace linings, and worker protective equipment containing asbestos. The facility employed hundreds of workers exposed to asbestos throughout its decades of operation.
The 20-to-50-Year Latency Period
Mesothelioma has a latency period of 20 to 50 years. A worker exposed to asbestos at South San Francisco facilities in the 1970s may only receive a mesothelioma diagnosis in 2025 or later. This is why South San Francisco continues to produce new mesothelioma cases decades after asbestos use was restricted.
South San Francisco's Bayshore industrial corridor housed Swift & Company, Armour & Company, and other major meatpacking operations whose facilities required extensive insulated refrigeration systems and steam heating infrastructure, both of which relied heavily on asbestos pipe insulation and boiler lagging. Workers who maintained these industrial refrigeration and steam systems faced sustained asbestos exposure throughout their careers.
The city's chemical, pharmaceutical precursor, and industrial supply companies in the Bayshore corridor also used asbestos extensively in their facility infrastructure. South San Francisco's transition from heavy industry to biotech in the latter twentieth century did not erase the legacy of asbestos exposure accumulated by the generation that built the original industrial base. Older industrial buildings throughout the Oyster Point and Bayshore districts continue to contain legacy asbestos materials.
South San Francisco's Asbestos Legacy by the Numbers
South San Francisco was nicknamed "The Industrial City" for over a century of heavy manufacturing. Southern Pacific's Bay Area railroad network was one of the largest in the West. Columbia Steel employed hundreds of workers in asbestos-intensive steelmaking operations. California allows only 2 years from diagnosis to file a mesothelioma claim — one of the shortest deadlines in the nation. Documenting your asbestos exposure history is a critical first step.
