Shipyard Exposure Index

Shipyard Exposure Profile
U.S. Naval & Commercial Shipyards
Documented facilities	25+
Peak employment (WWII)	1.5+ million
Workers exposed (WWII era)	4.5+ million
Primary exposure period	1940–1980
Asbestos uses per vessel	300+ distinct applications
Dominant disease	Pleural mesothelioma
Current OSHA PEL	0.1 f/cc (since 1994)

Executive Summary

The Shipyard Exposure Index is a comprehensive database of U.S. naval and commercial shipyards with documented asbestos exposure, workforce statistics, and compensation claim guidance. American shipyards employed millions of workers during the 20th century, with peak employment during World War II and the Cold War; asbestos was used extensively in ship construction, repair, and overhaul operations from the 1930s through the 1980s, creating one of the largest occupational exposure cohorts in U.S. history.

Shipyard workers face mesothelioma rates significantly higher than the general population. Insulators, pipefitters, boilermakers, and electricians worked in confined below-deck spaces where airborne asbestos fiber concentrations routinely exceeded safe exposure limits by 100 times or more. Because mesothelioma has a latency period of 20 to 50 years, workers exposed during the WWII shipbuilding surge and Cold War-era naval operations are still being diagnosed today. Every Navy vessel built between the 1930s and mid-1980s contained asbestos in over 300 distinct applications — from pipe insulation and boiler lagging to gaskets, fireproofing panels, and adhesive compounds — and no shipyard provided respiratory protection or warned workers of the hazard during this period.

At a Glance

U.S. shipyard asbestos exposure at a glance:

• 25+ documented shipyard facilities — naval and commercial yards profiled in this index, primarily active 1940–1980.
• 1.5+ million peak combined employment during World War II, with an estimated 4.5+ million workers passing through U.S. shipyards in the WWII era alone.
• 300+ distinct asbestos applications per Navy vessel built between the 1930s and mid-1980s — insulation, lagging, gaskets, and fireproofing.
• Pleural mesothelioma is the dominant malignancy — a 55-year follow-up of the Genoa shipyard found pleural mesothelioma mortality more than five times expected (SMR 575).
• Insulators (laggers) carried the highest risk of all shipyard trades, per the Selikoff insulation-worker cohort.
• Latency of 30–50 years means workers exposed during the WWII boom were diagnosed in large numbers from the 1980s onward and are still being diagnosed today.
• Take-home exposure reached families — 11.3% of 274 wives of shipyard workers showed radiologic evidence of asbestos disease.
• No federal exposure limit existed before 1971; OSHA's permissible limit fell from 5 f/cc (1971) to the current 0.1 f/cc (1994).

Key Facts

Measure	Finding (Source)
Documented facilities	25+ U.S. naval and commercial shipyards
Peak WWII employment	1.5+ million nationwide; ~70,000 at Brooklyn Navy Yard alone
Mesothelioma burden	Genoa shipyard cohort SMR 575 (95% CI 469–697), ~5× expected
Latency	Pleural cancer median latency ~42.8 years; risk persists after exposure ends
Take-home exposure	Asbestos disease in 11.3% of 274 shipyard-worker wives examined
First federal limit	OSHA emergency standard 5 f/cc (1971); no limit existed before
Current OSHA PEL	0.1 f/cc 8-hour TWA, effective October 11, 1994

Shipyard Exposure Index

This index documents asbestos exposure across major U.S. shipbuilding and ship-repair facilities and the workers affected by it. It covers naval shipyards and commercial shipyards, detailed exposure profiles for the highest-employment yards, the trades at greatest risk, documented health outcomes, take-home exposure affecting families, the regulatory timeline, and the compensation pathways available to affected workers and their survivors.

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The Scale of WWII Shipyard Production

The wartime American shipbuilding mobilization was unprecedented in industrial history. In the decade before 1940, U.S. shipyards launched only 23 ships; between 1940 and 1945, that number surged to approximately 4,600 vessels — including 2,710 Liberty Ships, 414 Victory Ships, over 700 tankers, and more than 1,300 naval combat vessels. The San Francisco Bay Area alone produced 1,400 vessels, accounting for nearly 45% of all cargo shipping tonnage built nationally.

This output was achieved through revolutionary prefabrication methods. Henry Kaiser's seven shipyards — four in Richmond, California, and three in Oregon — produced nearly 1,500 ships with a workforce of approximately 90,000, setting speed records that reduced Liberty Ship construction from 250 days to under 50. The Brooklyn Navy Yard in New York employed 70,000 workers at peak, making it the largest industrial employer in New York State and the largest industrial center in the U.S. Navy. Nationwide, shipyard employment surged from approximately 168,000 in mid-1940 to over 1.5 million at the war's peak, with an estimated 4.5 million workers passing through shipyard employment during the war years.

Every one of these vessels contained asbestos in virtually every compartment — an estimated 24 to 30 tons of thermal insulation per destroyer, and up to 465 tons aboard Iowa-class battleships. Over 300 different asbestos-containing products were used aboard Navy ships between the 1930s and mid-1980s, and no shipyard provided respiratory protection or warned workers of the hazard.

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How Shipyard Workers Were Exposed

Asbestos was used in virtually every shipboard system:

• Insulation — Pipe covering, boiler lagging, turbine wrapping
• Fireproofing — Bulkhead panels, deck underlayment, cable coating
• Gaskets — Valve packing, flange seals, pump components
• Structural — Adhesives, cements, caulking compounds

Workers in all shipyard trades faced exposure, but those in engine rooms, boiler spaces, and insulation work faced the highest concentrations—often exceeding safe limits by 100x or more.

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Cold War Era Shipyard Asbestos Exposure

Asbestos exposure in American shipyards did not end with World War II. The post-war naval buildup sustained heavy asbestos use across both public and private yards into the 1970s, exposing a second generation of workers.

The Korean War (1950–1953) triggered an immediate shipbuilding and ship-repair surge as yards reactivated mothballed vessels and accelerated new construction. Thermal insulation, gaskets, and fireproofing on these ships continued to rely on asbestos-containing materials.

The nuclear-propulsion program drove some of the most insulation-intensive shipbuilding of the era. The world's first nuclear-powered submarine, USS Nautilus (SSN-571), was launched at the Electric Boat Division of General Dynamics in Groton, Connecticut, on January 21, 1954, and commissioned on September 30, 1954. Nuclear submarines and surface ships packed steam plants, piping, and machinery spaces into confined hulls, and asbestos lagging was applied extensively to manage the intense heat. Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Mississippi won a 1957 contract to build nuclear-powered attack submarines, and Electric Boat in Groton became the Navy's leading submarine builder — work that placed insulators, pipefitters, and machinists in close, sustained contact with asbestos.

Carrier and warship overhaul and refit work during the Vietnam era extended the exposure window further. Ripping out and replacing aged insulation during overhauls disturbed friable asbestos, releasing fibers into engine and boiler rooms. Federal regulation lagged behind the hazard: the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) did not adopt its first asbestos exposure standard until 1971, and meaningful workplace limits tightened only gradually through the 1970s and 1980s. As a result, workers employed in shipyards well into the 1970s accumulated significant asbestos exposure.

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Naval Shipyards

U.S. Navy shipyards conducted construction, repair, and overhaul of naval vessels. These facilities operated under federal authority and maintained detailed employment records now available through FOIA requests.

Shipyard	Location	Peak Employment	Operational Period	Profile
Brooklyn Navy Yard	Brooklyn, NY	70,000 (1944)	1801-1966	View Profile
Boston Naval Shipyard	Boston, MA	50,000 (1943)	1800-1974	View Profile
Charleston Naval Shipyard	Charleston, SC	26,000 (1943)	1901-1996	View Profile
Hunters Point Naval Shipyard	San Francisco, CA	18,000 (1945)	1941-1974	View Profile
Long Beach Naval Shipyard	Long Beach, CA	8,000	1943-1997	View Profile
Mare Island Naval Shipyard	Vallejo, CA	46,000 (1945)	1854-1996	View Profile
Norfolk Naval Shipyard	Portsmouth, VA	43,000 (1943)	1767-Present	View Profile
Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard	Honolulu, HI	24,000 (1944)	1908-Present	View Profile
Philadelphia Naval Shipyard	Philadelphia, PA	40,000 (1944)	1801-1996	View Profile
Portsmouth Naval Shipyard	Kittery, ME	25,000 (1943)	1800-Present	View Profile
Puget Sound Naval Shipyard	Bremerton, WA	32,000 (1945)	1891-Present	View Profile
Washington Navy Yard	Washington, DC	Historic	1799-Present	View Profile
Newport News Shipbuilding	Newport News, VA	31,000	1886-Present	View Profile

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Commercial Shipyards

Private shipyards built vessels for commercial shipping, the Merchant Marine, and military contracts. Many operated under Emergency Shipbuilding Program contracts during WWII.

Shipyard	Location	Notable Production	Profile
Kaiser Shipyards	Richmond, Portland, Vancouver	Liberty Ships, Victory Ships	View Profile
Avondale Shipyard	New Orleans, LA	Commercial, Military	View Profile
Alabama Dry Dock and Shipbuilding	Mobile, AL	Liberty Ships, Repair	View Profile
Bath Iron Works	Bath, ME	Destroyers, Cruisers	View Profile
Bethlehem Shipbuilding	Multiple Locations	Diverse Naval/Commercial	View Profile
Electric Boat	Groton, CT	Submarines	View Profile
Fore River Shipyard	Quincy, MA	Battleships, Carriers	View Profile
Ingalls Shipbuilding	Pascagoula, MS	Destroyers, Amphibious	View Profile
New York Shipbuilding Corporation	Camden, NJ	Aircraft Carriers	View Profile
Tampa Bay Shipbuilding	Tampa, FL	Commercial Vessels	View Profile
Todd Shipyards	Multiple Locations	Repair, Construction	View Profile

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Notable Shipyards: Exposure Profiles

The eight yards profiled below were among the highest-employment shipbuilding and ship-repair centers of the World War II and Cold War eras. Each concentrated tens of thousands of workers in construction, repair, and overhaul tasks that involved heavy use of asbestos thermal insulation, lagging, and fireproofing. The peak-employment figures cited are drawn from Naval History and Heritage Command, the Naval Sea Systems Command, the National Park Service, and the yards' own historical records. Four of these yards — Norfolk, Puget Sound, Pearl Harbor, and (through its successor) Portsmouth — remain active Navy installations today, while the others have closed and been redeveloped.

Brooklyn Navy Yard

The Brooklyn Navy Yard in New York was, by the end of World War II, among the largest shipyards in the world, employing roughly 70,000 people at its wartime peak. The yard built and repaired major warships, including the battleships USS Arizona and USS Missouri. Shipfitters, welders, pipefitters, and insulators worked amid heavy asbestos use in boiler rooms, engine rooms, and piping. The Navy closed the yard in 1966, and it now operates as a municipally owned industrial park.

Boston Naval Shipyard

The Boston Naval Shipyard (Charlestown Navy Yard) reached an all-time peak workforce of 50,128 in 1943 and led the nation in destroyer-escort construction that year. Construction and repair of destroyers and escorts involved extensive asbestos insulation on propulsion and steam systems. The yard closed in 1974; the historic core is now preserved within Boston National Historical Park.

Mare Island Naval Shipyard

Mare Island Naval Shipyard near Vallejo, California, was the premier West Coast submarine yard, employing more than 39,000 civilians during World War II, with thousands more in uniform. During the war it produced 17 submarines, four submarine tenders, 31 destroyer escorts, and more than 300 landing craft, concentrating asbestos lagging in tight machinery spaces. The yard closed in 1996 and has since been redeveloped.

Norfolk Naval Shipyard

Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth, Virginia, reached its all-time civilian employment peak of 42,893 on February 15, 1943. The yard built roughly 30 major vessels and repaired some 6,850 U.S. and Allied ships during the war. Repair work — cutting out and replacing damaged insulation — exposed workers to airborne fibers. Norfolk remains an active Navy public shipyard today.

Philadelphia Naval Shipyard

The Philadelphia Naval Shipyard employed roughly 40,000 or more workers at its wartime peak — some accounts cite as many as 47,000 — and built the battleships USS New Jersey and USS Wisconsin. Battleship construction and the yard's large repair workload involved heavy asbestos insulation. The Navy yard closed in 1996 under Base Realignment and Closure; the site is now a commercial campus.

Puget Sound Naval Shipyard

Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton, Washington, peaked at roughly 32,500 workers during World War II, when its primary mission was repairing battle-damaged Pacific Fleet warships. Battle-damage repair routinely meant tearing out scorched asbestos insulation, a high-fiber-release activity. Puget Sound remains an active Navy public shipyard specializing in nuclear-vessel work.

Newport News Shipbuilding

Newport News Shipbuilding in Virginia, a private yard, reached peak employment of more than 31,000 in April 1943 and built aircraft carriers and cruisers for the wartime Navy. It later became a center of nuclear shipbuilding, delivering nuclear submarines and the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, USS Enterprise, in the early 1960s — work involving extensive thermal insulation. Now a division of Huntington Ingalls Industries, it is the sole U.S. builder of aircraft carriers and remains in operation.

Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard

Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard in Hawaii became the linchpin of Pacific Fleet repair after the December 7, 1941 attack, salvaging and repairing nearly every damaged or sunken vessel that could be returned to service. Salvage and battle-damage repair were among the most asbestos-intensive of all yard tasks. Pearl Harbor is one of four Navy public shipyards still operating and today maintains nuclear submarines.

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Shipyard Occupations

All shipyard workers faced asbestos exposure, but certain trades experienced the highest concentrations:

Extreme Exposure Trades

• Insulators/Laggers — Direct asbestos handling daily
• Boilermakers — Confined space boiler work
• Pipefitters — Pipe insulation installation/removal
• Ship Scalers — Surface preparation in enclosed spaces

Very High Exposure Trades

• Electricians — Wire insulation, panel work
• Machinists — Engine room equipment
• Welders — Heat shielding, cutting through insulation
• Sheet Metal Workers — Ductwork, ventilation systems

High Exposure Trades

• Carpenters — Bulkhead installation, finishing
• Painters — Surface preparation, coatings
• Riggers — General construction support
• Laborers — Cleanup, material handling

→ View Complete Occupation Database

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Health Outcomes Among Shipyard Workers

Shipyard work is one of the most thoroughly documented high-risk occupations for asbestos-related disease. The dominant malignancy among shipyard workers is pleural mesothelioma — cancer of the lining of the lung — reflecting the inhalation of airborne fibers in enclosed engine rooms, boiler rooms, and machinery spaces. Peritoneal mesothelioma occurs but is far less common in this population; survival and incidence statistics for shipyard workers refer to the pleural form unless otherwise stated.

The U.S. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) identifies shipyard trades among the occupations historically subject to heavy asbestos exposure, noting that asbestos was used throughout ships to coat pipes and hulls.

Cohort epidemiology confirms a sharply elevated mesothelioma burden. A 55-year follow-up of 3,984 workers at the shipyard of Genoa, Italy, found pleural mesothelioma mortality more than five times the expected rate (standardized mortality ratio 575, 95% confidence interval 469–697), with a median latency for pleural cancer of about 42.8 years. A prospective cohort of 3,893 shipyard workers reported 11 mesothelioma cases against 1.5 expected, and concluded that mesothelioma risk persists for years after asbestos exposure has ceased — unlike lung-cancer risk, which the authors found declined after exposure stopped.

Insulators (laggers) carried the highest risk of all shipyard trades. The landmark cohort of asbestos insulation workers assembled by Selikoff, Hammond, and Seidman — encompassing roughly 17,800 U.S. and Canadian workers — documented severe excess cancer mortality and established that asbestos-disease latency commonly spans two to four decades or more, with the risk of mesothelioma and lung cancer rising for decades after first exposure. The same body of research underpins the modern understanding that there is no demonstrated safe threshold of asbestos exposure, which is why even intermittent shipyard work decades ago can give rise to disease today. Taken together, these cohort studies place shipyard insulation and repair trades among the highest-risk occupations for asbestos-related cancer documented in the occupational-health literature, and they explain why mesothelioma claims tied to mid-century shipyard employment continue to be filed in large numbers. Because of this long latency — typically about 30 to 50 years — workers exposed during the World War II shipbuilding boom were diagnosed in large numbers from the 1980s through the 2000s, even though their exposure had occurred decades earlier.

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Secondary and Take-Home Exposure

Asbestos-related disease among shipyard workers was not confined to the workers themselves. Fibers clung to clothing, hair, skin, shoes, and tools, and workers carried them home — a pathway known as take-home or secondary (paraoccupational) exposure. The ATSDR notes that in the era before modern industrial hygiene, asbestos workers went home covered in asbestos dust, exposing family members through contact with skin, hair, and clothing, and especially through the laundering of contaminated work clothes, which shook fibers loose into the air.

Epidemiology has confirmed that this household exposure caused disease. A study of family contacts of shipyard workers in Los Angeles County found radiologic evidence of asbestos disease in 11.3 percent of 274 wives examined, along with abnormalities in sons and daughters, placing these family members at risk for pleural mesothelioma and lung cancer. A cohort of wives of asbestos workers in Casale Monferrato, Italy, found 11 incident pleural mesothelioma cases against 0.44 expected — a standardized incidence ratio above 25 — and concluded that household exposure increases the risk of pleural mesothelioma specifically.

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs recognizes that asbestos brought home on a service member's clothing could expose family members. Because take-home exposure typically involves lower fiber doses than direct occupational exposure, latency periods can be long and diagnoses may emerge decades after the worker left the yard. For a fuller discussion of this exposure pathway, see the Secondary Exposure page.

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Regulatory Timeline

The table below summarizes key milestones in industry knowledge and federal regulation of occupational asbestos exposure relevant to shipyard workers. Fiber concentrations are expressed in fibers per cubic centimeter of air (f/cc), measured as an 8-hour time-weighted average (TWA) unless noted.

Year	Event	Significance
1930s–1940s	Asbestos experiments at the Saranac Laboratory — including work finding high tumor incidence in exposed animals — were funded by industry, which retained the right to approve publication; cancer findings were deleted from a published report.	Documents later surfaced in litigation indicate the asbestos industry was aware of disease risk and sought to limit publicity, delaying public and medical awareness.
1971	OSHA adopted its first asbestos standard, followed by an emergency temporary standard in December 1971 setting an 8-hour TWA of 5 f/cc with a 10 f/cc ceiling.	First federal workplace exposure limit for asbestos.
1972	OSHA's final standard confirmed the 8-hour TWA permissible exposure limit (PEL) of 5 f/cc with a 10 f/cc ceiling.	Established the binding initial PEL.
1976	OSHA reduced the 8-hour TWA PEL to 2 f/cc.	Tightened the limit as disease evidence accumulated.
1986	OSHA lowered the 8-hour TWA PEL tenfold to 0.2 f/cc.	Major tightening; triggered large-scale abatement and containment requirements.
1994	OSHA lowered the 8-hour TWA PEL to 0.1 f/cc for all asbestos work in all industries (effective October 11, 1994), retaining a 1 f/cc excursion limit over 30 minutes.	The current federal permissible exposure limit.

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Asbestos Removal and Abatement Era

The tightening of federal standards in the 1980s and 1990s created a paradox: the effort to remove asbestos generated a second wave of exposure. When OSHA lowered the permissible exposure limit tenfold to 0.2 f/cc in 1986, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Asbestos National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP) imposed inspection, notification, wetting, and containment requirements on demolition and renovation, large-scale removal of aging asbestos-containing materials accelerated.

In the maritime sector, the Navy undertook abatement aboard mothballed, decommissioned, and overhauled vessels, where decades-old insulation had become friable. Disturbing aged, deteriorating asbestos — cutting it out, bagging it, and hauling it away — is among the highest fiber-release activities in any work setting, and abatement and demolition workers became a newly exposed population even as the materials were being removed for safety. The EPA NESHAP rules specifically target the demolition and renovation phase because these activities can release large quantities of fibers, and they require trained on-site supervision, wetting of regulated materials, leak-tight containment, and controlled disposal.

Because asbestos-related diseases including mesothelioma and lung cancer typically take decades to develop, workers who performed abatement in the 1980s and 1990s continue to be diagnosed today. This delayed onset means that the regulatory response to asbestos hazards, while protective in the long term, produced its own cohort of exposed workers whose latency periods are only now elapsing.

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Documenting Your Shipyard Employment

Successful claims require documentation of:

1. Employment dates — Pay stubs, tax records, union records
2. Job classifications — Trade, rating, department
3. Specific vessels — Ships worked on, repair vs. new construction
4. Asbestos contact — Products used, removal work, confined spaces

Record Sources

• National Personnel Records Center — Federal employment verification
• Social Security Administration — Employment history
• Union Records — Local union membership, job dispatches
• State Workers' Compensation — Prior injury claims
• Shipyard Personnel Offices — Some maintain historical records

→ View Evidence Documentation Guide

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Asbestos Products Used in Shipyards

Documented asbestos-containing products used in shipyard operations:

• Johns Manville — Pipe insulation, block insulation
• Owens Corning — Fiberglass/asbestos insulation products
• Pittsburgh Corning — Unibestos block insulation
• Eagle-Picher — Thermal insulation products
• Garlock — Gaskets, packing materials
• Crane Co. — Valves with asbestos packing

→ View Complete Products List

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Compensation Pathways

Shipyard workers may recover compensation through multiple channels:

• Asbestos Trust Funds — Bankruptcy trusts of former manufacturers
• Personal Injury Lawsuits — Against solvent defendants
• Veterans Benefits — For military service connection
• Longshore and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act — Civilian federal shipyard workers and certain maritime workers may be covered by the federal LHWCA (33 U.S.C. § 901 et seq.), in addition to or instead of state workers' compensation.

Recovery amounts vary widely with the number of identified asbestos-product exposures and the strength of employment documentation; workers with multiple documented exposures frequently qualify for several bankruptcy trust funds in addition to litigation against solvent defendants.

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Frequently Asked Questions

How were shipyard workers exposed to asbestos?

Shipyard workers were exposed to asbestos through direct handling of insulation materials, proximity to insulation installation and removal, and work in confined shipboard spaces where airborne asbestos fibers accumulated to concentrations exceeding safe limits by 100 times or more. Over 300 distinct asbestos-containing products were used aboard U.S. Navy ships between the 1930s and mid-1980s, and no shipyard provided respiratory protection or hazard warnings during this period.

Which shipyard trades had the highest asbestos exposure?

Insulators and laggers who handled raw asbestos materials daily faced the most extreme exposure, followed by boilermakers working in confined boiler spaces, pipefitters installing and removing pipe insulation, and ship scalers performing surface preparation in enclosed compartments. Electricians, machinists, welders, and sheet metal workers also faced very high exposure levels due to their proximity to asbestos-containing materials throughout the vessel.

How many workers were affected by asbestos in U.S. shipyards?

An estimated 4.5 million workers passed through U.S. shipyard employment during World War II alone, with peak nationwide employment exceeding 1.5 million at the war's height. The Brooklyn Navy Yard employed 70,000 workers at peak, while Kaiser's seven shipyards employed approximately 90,000. Shipyard asbestos exposure continued through the Cold War era until the 1980s, affecting millions more workers across naval and commercial facilities.

What compensation is available for shipyard workers with mesothelioma?

Shipyard workers diagnosed with mesothelioma may recover compensation through multiple channels: asbestos bankruptcy trust funds established by former manufacturers, personal injury lawsuits against solvent defendants, VA disability benefits for military-connected service, and state or federal workers' compensation programs. The total recovery depends heavily on the number of identified asbestos-product exposures and the quality of employment documentation, since each documented product manufacturer may correspond to a separate trust fund or defendant.

What documents do I need to file a shipyard asbestos claim?

Successful shipyard asbestos claims require documentation of employment dates (pay stubs, tax records, union records), job classification (the trade determines presumed exposure intensity), the specific vessels worked on (distinguishing repair from new construction), and evidence of asbestos contact. Records can be obtained from the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC), which holds Official Personnel Folders for former federal employees; the Social Security Administration, which can confirm employers and years worked; union locals; and state workers' compensation offices. Veterans pursuing a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs disability claim additionally need service records and a physician's nexus statement connecting the diagnosis to in-service asbestos exposure.

Can family members of shipyard workers file a claim for take-home asbestos exposure?

Yes. Family members who developed mesothelioma or another asbestos-related disease from secondary (take-home) exposure — typically from contact with or laundering of a worker's contaminated clothing — may have grounds to pursue compensation. Epidemiologic studies have documented elevated rates of asbestos disease and pleural mesothelioma among the wives and children of shipyard and asbestos workers. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs likewise acknowledges that asbestos carried home on clothing could expose family members.

Does asbestos exposure during the Cold War era still support a shipyard claim?

Yes. Asbestos remained in heavy use in shipyards through the 1970s, and federal exposure limits were not adopted until 1971 and were tightened only gradually thereafter. Cold War–era construction and overhaul of nuclear submarines, aircraft carriers, and other warships involved extensive asbestos insulation. Because mesothelioma latency commonly spans 30 to 50 years, workers exposed in the 1950s through the 1970s are still being diagnosed, and exposure from that period can support a claim.

Is there a difference between a veteran's claim and a civilian shipyard worker's claim?

Yes. Civilian shipyard workers generally pursue compensation through state workers' compensation, asbestos trust funds, or litigation, depending on the facts. Veterans exposed to asbestos during military service — including aboard Navy ships and in Navy yards — may instead, or additionally, file a disability compensation claim with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, which requires service records documenting the military occupational specialty and a physician's statement connecting the diagnosis to in-service exposure. Civilian federal Navy-yard employees can verify their employment through the National Personnel Records Center.

Related Resources

• Occupational Exposure Index — Complete occupation database
• Veterans Benefits — Military shipyard workers
• Navy Ships Asbestos Database — Vessel-specific exposure
• Secondary Exposure — Family member exposure from work clothes

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External links

• Danziger & De Llano — national mesothelioma and asbestos law firm with shipyard asbestos litigation experience.