About Electric Auto-Lite Toledo Parts Plant Toledo Ohio
Electric Auto-Lite in Toledo Manufacturing
Electric Auto-Lite began as a modest manufacturer of automotive electrical components and grew into one of the most important suppliers in the American automobile industry. At its peak, the company reportedly employed thousands of workers at its Toledo facilities, producing:
- Spark plugs and ignition systems
- Starters and generators
- Distributors and electrical assemblies
- Mechanical and electrical automobile components
Toledo was a major hub of diversified manufacturing throughout the twentieth century. Electric Auto-Lite was a defining employer in the region — its place in labor history cemented by the landmark 1934 strike, one of the defining labor actions of the New Deal era. Toledo’s broader industrial base — including Champion Spark Plug, Libbey-Owens-Ford Glass, and the region’s auto assembly operations — shared many of the same asbestos-containing material suppliers and trade union membership as Electric Auto-Lite, creating a web of overlapping potential asbestos exposure Ohio workers faced across Northwest Ohio.
Corporate Ownership Transitions and Asbestos-Containing Legacy Materials
The company changed hands several times:
- Eltra Corporation acquired Electric Auto-Lite and continued manufacturing operations through the mid-to-late twentieth century
- Allied Products Corporation later acquired Eltra facilities
- Successor entities continued operations in the Toledo area
Through each ownership change, the underlying manufacturing infrastructure stayed substantially in place. Asbestos-containing materials allegedly installed during earlier construction by suppliers such as, — a company with deep Ohio roots, having operated major glass manufacturing facilities in the Toledo region — and reportedly remained in the facility long after original installation. Workers performing maintenance, renovation, repair, and demolition work across those decades may have been exposed as a result, potentially providing the foundation for mesothelioma or asbestos-related illness diagnosed years or decades later.
General Equipment at Electric Auto-Lite Toledo Parts Plant Toledo Ohio
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 — Ohio
The records below are verified, state-documented asbestos removals at this facility. Each entry represents a regulated abatement project where the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (Ohio EPA) 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 Ohio EPA 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:
Who May Have Been Exposed at Electric Auto-Lite Toledo Parts Plant Toledo Ohio
Former employees of the Electric Auto-Lite Toledo Parts Plant who may have been exposed to asbestos-containing materials span multiple trades and job classifications. The risk was not limited to workers who directly handled asbestos-containing products. Workers in adjacent areas who were present when asbestos-containing materials were disturbed may also have inhaled significant quantities of respirable asbestos fibers — potentially seeding mesothelioma or asbestos-related lung disease that would not surface for decades.
Trades and classifications at elevated risk include:
Insulators and Pipe Coverers — Members of Heat and Frost Insulators Local 1 who installed, removed, or repaired pipe insulation and boiler covering at the Toledo facility may have had among the heaviest potential asbestos-containing material exposure of any trade. Insulation work routinely required cutting, fitting, and sanding asbestos-containing pipe covering, releasing dense clouds of respirable fiber in enclosed mechanical spaces.
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Ohio — Filing Deadline & Next Steps
Ohio law gives mesothelioma and asbestos-disease claimants 2 years from the date of medical diagnosis to file a personal-injury lawsuit (ORC § 2305.10). For wrongful-death claims after an asbestos-related death, the filing window is 2 years from the date of death (ORC § 2125.02). 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 Ohio 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 — Ohio
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 — Ohio
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)
- Ohio Environmental Protection Agency 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.