Mesothelioma and asbestos exposure in Newport News

Newport News Shipbuilding has built some of the largest ships in the Navy, including aircraft carriers, along with submarines and commercial vessels. Mid-century ships required vast amounts of insulation for boilers, reactors, turbines and piping, and asbestos was standard for decades. Insulators cut and applied block, pipe covering and cement, while other trades worked in the same compartments during construction and overhaul. On a ship the size of a carrier, that meant thousands of workers spread across hundreds of spaces, many of them close to insulation work at some point in each day.

The shipyard has long been the region's largest employer, so exposure touched a large share of Peninsula families. Nearby military installations, including Fort Eustis and Langley Air Force Base, had older buildings and heating systems of their own. The James River Reserve Fleet, anchored near Fort Eustis, held aging government ships whose maintenance and eventual scrapping involved old insulation. Workers who moved between the shipyard, the bases and ship scrapping jobs built up long exposure histories. Household exposure from dusty work clothes also affected spouses and children across Newport News and Hampton.