A Los Angeles jury awarded $9.7 million to a Georgia man who said he developed mesothelioma after he was exposed to asbestos while serving as a Navy machinist’s mate aboard the USS Preble.  The plaintiff is currently a resident of Georgia, but his ship was based in Long Beach CA when he was assigned to service there. He was diagnosed last year with malignant mesothelioma, which the jury agreed was caused by asbestos.

The plaintiff blamed the disease on exposure to asbestos-packed gaskets while serving aboard the USS Preble from 1961 to 1965. Mesothelioma usually takes twenty to fifty years to appear after the victim has been exposed to asbestos. The fact that this case was instigated on board a navy ship is no surprise. About thirty percent of all mesothelioma sufferers in the U.S. are veterans; the large majority of those are men who worked on board a ship or in a Navy shipyard.

A Los Angeles Superior Court jury returned the verdict in Brewer’s favor on May 16. Doctors testified during Brewer’s trial that he probably has less than a year to live. While jurors awarded Brewer and his wife $9.7 million, the couple will see much less. The suit had named a dozen parts manufacturers but 11 settled before trial. The major offender is immune from prosecution.

Jurors found the remaining defendant, gasket maker Crane Co. of Stamford, Conn., to be 2 percent liable in the case, meaning it is responsible for only a fraction of the award. Jurors found the Navy 50 percent liable for Brewer’s cancer, although it was not named as a defendant in the suit and was immune from any award.

In recent years, California juries have made several large awards in asbestos-related mesothelioma cases.

Nearly seven years after the destruction of the World Trade Center many New Yorkers continue to suffer from mental and physical health problems. In response, the Centers for Disease Control recently announced it would contribute a grant of $30 million toward treatment for people who have experienced health problems generated by the disaster.

The collapse of the World Trade Center towers created and dispersed an enormous cloud of dust that was full of toxins and harsh chemicals, including asbestos dust, lead dust, glass fibers, and toxic gases. Among the most toxic of these is asbestos, known to cause asbestosis, mesothelioma and other forms of cancer.  Asbestos fibers may be the most insidious, as the lethal diseases they cause can lie dormant for many years.

Many people who breathed in the dust, including local residents, office workers, firefighters, and volunteer rescue workers, have since developed serious health problems such as severe lung disease and certain types of cancer. Exposure to the traumatic events of the day and the days after has also caused many people to suffer from anxiety, depression, and signs of trauma.

Area hospitals continue to provide treatment and monitoring for people with health problems related to the events of 9/11. These services are provided at no cost for the people who need them, but eventually the hospitals are going to want to recoup costs. As time passes, treatment of asbestos-related diseases may cause an increase in costs. Illnesses caused by asbestos usually take 15 or more years to develop, and can be very expensive to treat. For example, mesothelioma treatment is very expensive since the cancer is quite aggressive and treatments require intensive medical attention and equipment.

For most of a century asbestos was hailed as a product that combined an efficient insulating effect, and acted as a fire retardant.  That was the good news; asbestos has also long been established that exposure to asbestos and asbestos fibers can cause a number of serious respiratory ailments – the worst of which is named after the product: asbestosis.  And the most lethal byproduct of asbestos is mesothelioma, a lethal cancer that usually attacks lungs that have inhaled asbestos fibers.   By 1981, the EPA and other government agencies had all but banned use of asbestos.

Like many domestic industries, the U.S. military made ample use of asbestos in construction of many of its weapons during the first three quarters of the last century.  Nowhere was the use of asbestos more apparent than on Navy ships.  The heat generated by diesel engines was a constant factor on the warships, and onboard fires could quickly become just as lethal as shellfire that may have caused them.  Every ship from 1940 through the 70s carried asbestos as pipe casings, insulating material, in adhesives and gaskets, floor coverings and sealants.

Army veterans also worked with asbestos when fitting out fighting vehicles, building barracks and repairing damaged equipment.  Fittings of every sort used asbestos to insulate and to protect from fire.  Because it often takes 20 to 50 years for mesothelioma to develop after exposure to asbestos, the veterans that are reaching retirement age over the next twenty years are a demographic group that is likely to see high rates of mesothelioma compared to the population as a whole.

Asbestos was a critical element of shipbuilding for many years.  Mesothelioma is the lethal cancer associated with exposure to asbestos fiber – a disease than has a latency factor of 20 to 50 years.  As a result, the disease has lately become an emerging factor among those who worked in and around ships during the period from 1940 to 1970.  Navy veterans probably head the list for groups of retired or retiring individuals who are showing the effects of asbestos exposure.

A study of mesothelioma and published in American Family Physician states that “High-risk populations include persons in construction trades, boilermakers, shipyard workers, railroad workers, and U.S. Navy veterans.”  When you take into account the fact that among these groups Navy veterans are probably by far the smallest population, it becomes clear that mesothelioma is going to be an ongoing problem for former sailors.

The ships built for the U.S. Navy from the beginning of WW II until the 70s were loaded with asbestos.  The miles of pipes and pipe fittings in ships were often coated with asbestos to provide insulation – both for the contents of the pipe and the enclosed quarters that characterize military craft.  The flame-retardant properties of asbestos made it an excellent insulation for isolating compartments aboard ship as well.  Those sailors working in the engine rooms oar with on-board boilers were exposed to asbestos daily.