San Diego Naval Shipyard

The San Diego Naval Shipyard started operations in the early 1920s, and it is now the United States Navy's biggest shipyard, employing some 40,000 people. In the World War II years, workers at the base maintained, overhauled, repaired or converted more than 5,000 ships at the site, which was called the U.S. Repair Base-San Diego at the time.

Asbestos Products in Ships

Most or possibly all of the vessels worked on at the shipyard in those years contained asbestos products. Both military and merchant ships used asbestos in many ways, usually as insulation and fireproofing for parts such as:

• boilers
• pumps
• turbines
• steam pipes
• hot water pipes
• incinerators
• gaskets
• wall insulation
• cement

Workers Not Told of the Risk

The risk of asbestos fibers in the air was known to some public health officials even during the peak shipbuilding and repairing years of WWII, but the workers at the San Diego Naval Shipyard/ Repair Base-San Diego were not told of the risk, nor were they given protective gear to prevent the inhalation of asbestos fibers.

Nowadays, OSHA (the Occupational Safety and Health Administration) regulates asbestos in shipyards, including the construction, demolition, and repair of asbestos-containing vessels, but the OSHA rules weren't implemented soon enough for thousands of shipyard workers and their families.

Mesothelioma, Cancers Are the Result

Asbestos exposure can result in lung cancer, mesothelioma (another type of cancer), asbestosis, and other serious respiratory diseases. Thousands of shipyard workers have developed these diseases after working with asbestos products in the years from the 1940s to 1980s. The onset of mesothelioma, for example, is usually 10 to 40 years after the initial exposure to asbestos.

Not only the shipyard employees were at risk of toxic asbestos exposure; their family members were often subjected to asbestos that was brought home on the shipyard worker's clothing and shoes.

Contact Us for More Information

If you or your family member has been diagnosed with an asbestos-related disease, learn more about the resources available to you by contacting us today.