ASBESTOS PACKING

The U.S. Navy was one of the biggest consumers of asbestos packing materials

May 4, 2010 – Asbestos packing is essentially fireproof insulation made with asbestos, a cancer-causing construction material.

Asbestos packing had a variety of industrial uses that relied on its heat and fire-resistant properties – and for that reason was used by power plants, oil refineries, steel mills, paper mills, and other industrial enterprises where excessive heat and flame was a concern.

As recently as the 1980s, the safety precautions taken to prevent asbestos exposure were extremely inadequate, and in some cases were even non-existent.

Asbestos packing exposure

The material alone was not a serious health risk, but asbestos packing is often fitted into tight spaces, and therefore needed to be cut, sawed or sanded into place.

These activities, which seem innocuous on the surface, release microscopic and toxic asbestos fibers into the air. During the war years, unprotected workers would inadvertently breathe these fibers into their lungs and suffer asbestos exposure.

Asbestos exposure is known to cause mesothelioma, asbestosis and lung cancer.

Asbestos packing in the Navy

Asbestos packing was widely used aboard U.S. Navy ships between 1940 and 1960, and significantly contributes to the high rate of asbestos-related diseases among Navy veterans and former civilian shipyard workers.

Today, retired Naval veterans are most vulnerable to developing symptoms of mesothelioma. That’s because the mesothelioma latency period can last more than 40 years after an initial asbestos exposure before the illness is recognized by doctors. And by then, the mesothelioma survival rate is grim.

Some 3,000 cases of mesothelioma are diagnosed every year in the United States, and in nearly every case, the cause of mesothelioma is occupational asbestos exposure.

Weitz & Luxenberg – Asbestos-injury law firm

Manufacturers of asbestos packing and certain employers knew about the product’s dangers long before the public did. Workers were often denied this information for the sake of business profits, and allowed to keep working with the toxic material unprotected.

Thousands of retired workers diagnosed with job-related asbestos disease have filed asbestos claims against the employers that failed to provide safety equipment and the product manufacturers who neglected to warn consumers.

If you worked with asbestos packing or similar materials and you’ve been diagnosed with mesothelioma, you may be eligible for compensation.

We urge you to contact an asbestos cancer attorney at Weitz & Luxenberg for a free appraisal of your case and your eligibility to receive compensation.