Hazardous Occupations

Shipyard Workers

Shipyards are large facilities that build and repair large military or commercial ocean-going vessels such as cargo ships, oil tankers, fishing boats, barges, aircraft carriers, battleships, submarines, and more. Shipyard workers may be painters, welders, carpenters, electricians, plumbers, architects and engineers.

During periods of wartime, shipyards have been exceptionally busy and serve as crucially important places of industry. During World War II and the Korean War, for example, literally hundreds of thousands of military men and women as well as civilians worked in America's shipyards in the construction and repair of Navy vessels.

Asbestos Exposure

Throughout much of the twentieth century, asbestos was very widely used in the shipbuilding industry. The physical characteristics of asbestos "its durability, fire and heat resistance, and insulating properties" made it ideal for use in a large number of different construction materials that were used both in building construction and in ship building and repair.

Almost anyone working in a shipyard prior to the 1980s may have been exposed to asbestos fibers. The dangerous mineral was found in:

Shipyard workers involved in repairing damaged ships were particularly vulnerable to inhalation of asbestos fibers. Damaged ships often contained damaged asbestos products, and in these situations, the risk of airborne asbestos fibers was greatly increased. Particularly during World War II, shipyard workers who were involved in ship repair had to work very quickly due to the necessity of repairing damaged ships as quickly as possible to make them sea-worthy and ready for use again. In such situations, shipyard repair workers would typically work without protective clothing, handling asbestos with their bare hands, and inhaling large quantities of airborne asbestos fibers.

Shipyards were so heavily laden with airborne asbestos fibers that people who did not work directly with asbestos were exposed to the risks of inhalation as well. Asbestos dust on the clothes of shipyard workers could be transported to other shipyard locations, and office workers who did not work on the ships themselves were exposed simply through interacting with people who did.

Due to the widespread use of asbestos in the shipbuilding industry, the lack of provision of protective clothing for shipyard workers, and the general nature of the shipyard environment, this industry is now known to have been the single most hazardous working environment in terms of asbestos exposure. In recent decades thousands of shipyard workers have developed serious and sometimes fatal diseases, such as asbestosis and mesothelioma.

Those who worked in the nation's shipyards during the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s have begun to show evidence of these diseases, in some cases more than 50 years after exposure. The greatest tragedy of asbestos-related disease is that it could largely have been avoided if workers had been provided with protective clothing and equipment to prevent asbestos inhalation. The dangers of asbestos were known several decades before its use was restricted, but workers were uninformed and therefore unnecessarily exposed.

Even though asbestos is no longer used in shipyards for the construction of new vessels, workers who are involved in the repair of older ships may still be exposed to any asbestos present in these vessels and should always wear protective gear.

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