U.S. Navy Veterans & Asbestos Exposure / Mesothelioma

Everyone knows that members of the military have put their lives on the line for their country. What not everyone knows is that members of the United States Navy continued to have their lives at risk long after they left the military. Beginning shortly before World War II and continuing through the 1970s, Navy ships and shipyards were literally full of asbestos. The shipyards contained asbestos insulation in most buildings, floor and ceiling tiles made with asbestos, and asbestos parts used in most machinery. The ships had boiler rooms where asbestos was sprayed on as insulation. During the spraying, clouds of asbestos would fill the entire area. The men did not know the dangers, and consequently no one used respirators. In addition to other insulation, asbestos was used in all the wiring and plumbing on board ships. People who served on the ships have said that every time a gun was fired asbestos dust was raised. Worse, even today, after all the asbestos-caused deaths, some Navy ships still have asbestos insulation.

Although the public didn’t know the dangers of asbestos during the period when so many Navy veterans were being exposed to asbestos, the government did know the dangers but chose to ignore them. Asbestos has been used since the time of the ancient Greeks and Romans. Even the Pharaohs’ bodies were wrapped in asbestos cloth. But as much as asbestos was used, the Romans also noted that slaves who worked with asbestos seemed to have trouble breathing and often died younger than other slaves. Studies done in the United States and Great Britain during the early 1900s confirmed what the Greeks had seen: asbestos caused early death. By the mid-1920s doctors were able to diagnose asbestosis in people who had worked with asbestos for many years, and by 1930, medical journals were being filled with articles about the relationship between asbestos and cancer. Even so, asbestos use went unregulated until the early 1970s, and it still hasn’t been banned in the United States.

The tragedy of asbestos in the military is hard to imagine. Dr. Victor Roggli, the director of pathology at Duke University and the Virginia Medical Centers, says that he personally has reviewed more than 125 cases of mesothelioma among people who were occupationally exposed during the time they served in the United States Navy.

Asbestos causes asbestosis and is associated with several forms of cancer. Mesothelioma is the worst of the diseases caused by asbestos. It has a long latency period of 30 or more years, so many of the people who were exposed during the years of the most asbestos use are just now developing the disease. When mesothelioma first starts, the symptoms are very subtle. Most people fail to recognize the slight difficulty in breathing as an indication of a serious medical problem. Instead they wait to seek medical attention until the symptoms get worse. Unfortunately, that means that the cancer has gotten worse also.

If mesothelioma is diagnosed early, the most effective treatment is surgical removal of the tumor and the surrounding tissue. In some cases this removes all the cancer and it does not return. For people who don’t discover the mesothelioma until after it has metastasized, surgery is a less effective option. For these people doctors usually use a combination of chemotherapy and radiation treatment, sometimes in addition to surgery, to slow the growth of the cancer. Mesothelioma is highly resistant to a lot of the anti-cancer drugs available, and to date there is no cure. Few people live more than two years after being diagnosed with mesothelioma.

'U.S. Navy Veterans & Asbestos Exposure / Mesothelioma' Resources:
  1. Admiral Elmo R. Zumwalt, Jr., Mesothelioma Empowerment., February 3, 2003. "Mesothelioma Does Not Respect Rank or Power"
    Accessed: 29, 2007.