Center for Asbestos Safety in the Workplace

Asbestos in the shipbuilding industry

Its ability to withstand high temperatures and corrosion made asbestos an ideal material in shipbuilding.

During much of the 20th Century, especially during World War II and the early Cold War years, large quantities of asbestos went through shipyards into new ships and out of refurbished and decommissioned ships. Thousands of workers breathed asbestos fibers, which are so fine that they can hang in the air for hours.

In fact, working in an American shipyard during World War II was almost as deadly as fighting in the war.

During World War II, 16.1 million Americans were called to arms. The combat death rate was about 18 per thousand service members. About 4.3 million Americans worked in shipyards during the war. For every thousand wartime shipyard employees, about 14 died of asbestos-related cancer, and an unknown number died of asbestosis or complications from it.

The wartime shipbuilding boom created unprecedented demand for asbestos. Its ability to withstand high temperatures and corrosion and its relative abundance in nature made asbestos perfect for insulating the vessels' heat-producing components

The asbestos industry's cover-up did not keep the truth from federal health officials, among them Navy doctors and other government health experts. Naval medical authorities were aware that asbestos posed a danger early on.

A Navy medical bulletin published in 1922 listed asbestos work as a hazardous occupations and suggested that respirators be used in the workplace.

Late 1930s handbooks for Navy medical corpsmen discussed the hazards asbestos workers faced. In 1941 the Navy's chief officer for preventive medicine wrote of asbestos workers in shipyards: ``I am certain that we are not protecting the men as we should.''

The Navy was aware of the problem, and at the height of the wartime shipbuilding effort in 1943, it issued a document specifying industrial hygiene standards in contract shipyards. The standards regulated asbestos work in all yards that built or repaired Navy ships. They required the segregation of dust-producing jobs and special ventilation of dusty areas, and mandated that asbestos workers wear respirators and receive periodic medical examinations. The shipyards were expected to enforce those standards.

Years later, a World War II era Navy industrial health officer during testified that the Navy could have built ships during the war in ways that would have minimized health risks. But the military establishment chose to ignore breaking the rules in order to maintain high production levels.