ASBESTOS-CONTAINING PRODUCTS

Until the early 1970s, when they were finally outlawed by the Navy for ship construction, hazardous asbestos-containing products were in widespread use. You might be surprised to learn how many shipboard products contained asbestos. The bottom line is: if you worked in, or stood fire watch in, the engine or fire rooms on ships, or worked in construction of ships, you were probably exposed to asbestos-containing products. What is truly tragic is that the asbestos wasn't even a necessary component of these products.

Asbestos Was In Many Products On Ships

Most Navy old-timers are aware that asbestos was part of steam pipe and boiler insulation. Steam pipes and boilers were insulated, then covered with asbestos cement and asbestos cloth. Cutting of lagging, and mixing of cement, created clouds of deadly asbestos-containing dust. Engine and fire rooms often looked like snowstorms of airborne dust.

Navy boiler/water tenders, pipe fitters, firemen/fire control techs, enginemen, machinist mates, and electrician mates, working in the engine and fire rooms, were heavily exposed to asbestos-containing products, from the 1930s through the early 1970s, including many lesser-known forms of asbestos products, such as asbestos gaskets, asbestos paper, and asbestos rope. Asbestos was also contained in floor tiles, wallboard, millboard, ceiling tiles, and certain types of counter-top material.

Asbestos Wasn't Even Necessary--And The Asbestos Companies Knew It Was Hazardous

Which brings us to two tragic points about asbestos-containing products: one, the asbestos, supposedly important as heat protection, was really not all that necessary, and, two, the asbestos industry knew, since the 1930s, that asbestos was hazardous to human health, yet continued for decades to reap profits from these products. Asbestos company officials have testified that asbestos was just a sales gimmick. Asbestos was no more than a binder material in the manufacturing process. Non-hazardous, asbestos-free products could have been made available long before 1972. Asbestos-free products weren't as profitable as the asbestos-containing products, so they weren't produced commercially, until the Navy banned asbestos. There is considerable evidence, in the form of letters dating back to the 1930s between asbestos company executives, that asbestos companies knew their products were harmful, but conspired to suppress medical knowledge about asbestos health hazards.

Legal Rights of Persons With Asbestos-Related Diseases

Persons with a past history of asbestos exposure, found to have asbestos-related lung disease, or cancers, including lung cancer and mesothelioma, may be entitled to money damages.

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