Mesothelioma and asbestos exposure in Bremerton

Puget Sound Naval Shipyard has been the center of Bremerton's economy for more than a century. Through World War II and the Cold War, the yard built and overhauled battleships, aircraft carriers and submarines. Navy ships of that era used large amounts of asbestos insulation on boilers, turbines and steam piping, and shipyard trades cut, installed and removed it in confined engine rooms. The shipyard later worked on nuclear-powered ships, but the older conventional ships handled in the mid-twentieth century carried the heaviest asbestos loads. Workers in many trades shared crowded compartments, so dust from one crew's work reached others nearby.

Overhauls were especially dusty. Workers tore out old lagging, replaced gaskets and reinsulated systems while other trades worked nearby. Sailors assigned to ships in the yard could also be exposed. Many Bremerton families have more than one member who worked at the shipyard or served aboard ships there, and home exposure through dusty work clothes was common. Bremerton's workforce often lived in the same neighborhoods and commuted together by car or ferry, sharing dust from the yard. Shipyard employment records, union files and Navy service records can help show which ships and systems a person worked on, which is key to identifying asbestos products decades later.