A Naval Asbestos Worker Describes a Disposable Life

July 26, 2008

Waukegan, Il Fred worked for 36 years as an asbestos insulator in the Navy. He was exposed to asbestos throughout the entire time. Then, in 2006, he was diagnosed with cancer, and became so ill he was forced to retire. He's just 59 years old.



"I worked insulating pipes and boilers, and removing asbestos from boilers, and pipes on tanks used in world wars I and II," Fred said. But it was five years after he started work at the naval shipyards in the Great Lakes before he knew he was working around asbestos.



"I first came in contact with asbestos on the base in 1979," Fred said. "The first asbestos controlled removal was in 1986 at the base. That's when they issued us with the Tyvek suits and respirators. Before that I was just removing asbestos with my street clothes. I didn't know I was exposed or that it was dangerous. What opened my eyes in the first place was a company down the street from us that dealt with asbestos piping, and it occurred to me at the time that maybe I was working with this stuff."



To make matters worse, the Navy wasn't being honest about the risks. "The Navy said that the Great Lakes base didn't have any asbestos. But I took samples from eight or nine buildings, of materials that I was working with, and sent it off for testing. Every sample came back with asbestos. As a result, the Navy had to recant what they said about there being no asbestos on the base. They had to put the information in the newspapers.



Even though I was classified as a hazardous materials worker, and my job description was insulator, asbestos worker, I have paperwork to show that despite wearing protective equipment, I was overexposed to asbestos. This paperwork was generated by the navy, throughout the years that I worked on the base. I think the naval base has to keep my medical records for the next 37 years after I've left the base. So they should have the records."



Fred's rectal cancer was discovered during routine testing at his doctor's office. He had to undergo chemotherapy and radiation therapy for two months before undergoing surgery to remove the cancer. "I became so tired and sick during the treatment, in November of 2006, that I gave up work," Fred said. I had the years to retire, but I wasn't planning on retiring. Then in February I underwent surgery. "



But it's not just the effects of the rectal cancer that Fred has to live with. "When the doctors found out I had been working around asbestos they x-rayed my lungs and found that I had spots on them," he said. "I had a team of doctors looking at my lungs. I was diagnosed with plural thickening. Things are terrible for me now, I'm tired all the time, I wear a colostomy bag. When I get tired I just have to stop."



Fred would like some answers, and believes a lawyer can help him not only get the answers but get some justice as well. Just because his job involved working around hazardous materials doesn't mean he should have been put at unnecessary risk, and by implication, that his life is disposable.