ASBESTOS SHIP ENDS
40-YEAR ODYSSEY
French aircraft carrier Clemenceau arrives in UK for dangerous dismantling

February 11, 2009 - A decommissioned French aircraft carrier, rejected by four countries as being too toxic with asbestos to be broken up, arrived Sunday at its final resting place in northeast England for ship breaking.

The 51-year-old Clemenceau pulled into the English shipyard at Graythorp, Hartlepool after having been rejected as too dangerous for dismantling by scrapyards in Turkey, Greece, Egypt and India.

The French Navy spent years looking for a site that would accept it. In 2006, Greenpeace activists boarded the Clemenceau off the coast of Egypt to prevent it from being sent to India to be scrapped.

The project to dismantle the 32,700-ton aircraft carrier is one of the largest of its kind in Europe. The vessel contains more than 700 tons of asbestos built into the ship as fire retardant. It will join three UK and four U.S. vessels also slated for dismantling.

Launched in 1957, the Clemenceau sailed more than 1 million nautical miles in 40 years before it was withdrawn from active service in 1997.

In asbestos, ships trust

Asbestos aboard ships is more common than many people realize. Asbestos has been used generously in the construction of most sea-going vessels ever since WWII, and is especially prevalent in military vessels because combat conditions exacerbated the dangers of fire at sea.

Ships below deck tend to be poorly ventilated and enclosed environments, so sailors are historically at great risk for inhaling airborne asbestos fibers.

Shipyard workers (including sandblaster, riveter, rigger, merchant marine, loading dock worker and essentially every waterman) are lodged in occupations recognized as being among the most dangerous for asbestos exposure.

Unfortunately, for thousands of well-intentioned seamen, asbestos companies were less than forthcoming in disclosing the risks of contracting asbestos-related diseases, many of which are fatal.

The ugly truth about asbestos

Medical sources estimate that in the next decade more than 35,000 people nationwide will be diagnosed with the deadliest form of asbestos-related cancer, mesothelioma. This disease is most often the result of industrial workplace exposure to asbestos – and usually contracted through employers’ blatant disregard for the health and safety of their workers.

That’s why seamen diagnosed with mesothelioma and their family members have strong cases in court. Weitz & Luxenberg has protected the legal interests of workers for 25 years. And in that time the firm's mesothelioma lawyers have won several billion dollars in verdicts and settlements for clients.

If you worked in the maritime industry and have been diagnosed with mesothelioma or any asbestos-related disease, please notify us through the communication form on this page. We will pursue your claim with vigilance to help you pay for medical bills, future and past lost wages, and damages. There is no cost to you until we win a settlement or a verdict.