Asbestosis and the Naval Shipyards

Norfolk, WVJohn signed up for the Navy when he was just a teenager, and he remained in the Navy until he retired decades later. John worked around asbestos insulation and it took its toll. He died of asbestosis after years of suffering. Now his granddaughter would like to know why the Navy doesn't have to answer for this.

"I was about 18 when my grandfather died," Deborah said."I remember that for years – from the time I was a child--my grandfather couldn't catch his breath, and he had a terrible cough. He couldn't gain weight. He was sick.

The Navy didn't warn him properly about asbestos expsosure. He worked in the naval shipyards and one day, on his way home, he was given a pamphlet and told to read it. While he was at work he had to wear a mask all the time, and a suit which he threw out at the end of day, at work. But he would still come home covered in dust. His hair was black and he would come home with white dust in his hair. He was very cautious about what he did at home. And my mother and grandmother were around him all that time."

John was in great health when he joined the Navy, and for some time afterward, but then he developed a dry cough and the rest of the health problems started to slowly emerge. "When we found out he was dying we took my mother and grandmother to the doctor but they were told there was nothing that could be done for him," Deborah said. "My grandfather had to sit up to breathe, and he had to sleep sitting up."

John was 82 when he died and his last years must have been full of suffering. But still, the diagnosis of asbestosis came as a surprise. He died within half a year of being officially diagnosed. He didn't suspect it, probably because asbestosis and asbestos mesothelioma can literally take decades to emerge--up to 30 years in some cases.

Sadly, no one really knows for sure, because knowledge of the disease is evolving. What is known, however, is that more than 27 million workers were exposed to asbestos between 1940 and 1980. Deborah's grandfather worked in the shipyards in the late 1940s and 1950s; he was one of those workers.

But workers today aren't really any safer than John was. An estimated 1.3 million construction workers still face significant exposure to asbestos during renovations, demolitions, and asbestos removal, because the product is still widely used in roofing materials, textiles, friction products, insulation, and other building materials. The Environmental Working Group Action Fund estimates that 10,000 people a year die from asbestos-caused diseases the United States, which includes 1 out of every 125 American men who die over the age of 50.

"I'm irritated by the lack of acknowledgement on the part of the Navy that they subjected my grandfather to something so dangerous without properly warning him," Deborah said. "And I'm annoyed by way the Navy has treated my grandmother after my grandfather's death. The navy cut my grandfather's benefits the month after he died and said that my grandmother was not entitled to any money. He got a check from the navy every month, money they depended on. The benefit amount went from $1200 a month to $60 a month after he died. My grandfather gave his life to the Navy, and this is the best they can do?"

Deborah is also concerned for her mother who has survived 2 bouts with cancer. Deborah wonders if her mother's exposure to asbestos dust from the time she was a small child could have had something to do with her illnesses. While it's clearly too late to do anything for her grandfather, Deborah would dearly like to know if there's any legal recourse open to her to help her grandmother.