Edgewood

Edgewood refers to Edgewood Arsenal (later part of Aberdeen Proving Ground) in Harford County, Maryland, a U.S. Army chemical warfare research, production, and testing installation established in 1917. Like most military industrial sites of the 20th century, Edgewood made extensive use of asbestos-containing materials in its buildings, laboratories, pilot plants, steam systems, and protective equipment, exposing thousands of soldiers, civilian employees, and contractors.

Origin

The installation takes its name from the Edgewood community in Harford County, Maryland, where the Army acquired land in 1917 to develop chemical munitions capacity during World War I. It operated as a separate arsenal for decades before being administratively merged with neighboring Aberdeen Proving Ground in 1971.

Significance in Asbestos Context

Workers and service members at Edgewood encountered asbestos in pipe and boiler insulation in the arsenal's power plants and steam distribution systems, in laboratory bench tops and fume hoods, in gaskets and packing on chemical process equipment, in brake and clutch components on vehicles and rail equipment, and in firefighting and protective gear used during chemical experiments. The site is also notable because of the Edgewood human-subject chemical exposure program (1948-1975), which means many veterans already have established VA service-connection files that can document their time on base. For a patient whose mesothelioma or asbestosis traces back to military service or civilian employment at Edgewood, identifying specific buildings, job titles, and time periods is critical for both VA claims and civil claims against the manufacturers of the insulation, gaskets, and equipment used there.

Example Sentence

Her father's DD-214 showed he spent four years as a pipefitter at Edgewood Arsenal in the 1960s, which helped the lawyer identify the insulation manufacturers whose products he would have cut and removed.

Related Terms

Aberdeen Proving Ground, Military Asbestos Exposure, VA Disability Compensation, Pipe Insulation, Naval Shipyard, Occupational Exposure

Notes

• Request the veteran's complete Official Military Personnel File (OMPF) and service treatment records from the National Personnel Records Center; these will document assignment to Edgewood and specific duty MOS.
• If the patient is a veteran, file a VA claim for service-connected asbestos disease in parallel with any civil claim. The two systems are separate and a VA award does not bar suit against product manufacturers.
• Preserve any photographs, base ID cards, building assignment letters, or co-worker contact information; identifying specific buildings (power plant, Pilot Plant, laboratory complexes) helps experts reconstruct which asbestos products were present.
• Civilian employees and contractors at Edgewood should request employment records through the National Archives at St. Louis or the relevant federal personnel records office.
• Veterans who participated in the Edgewood chemical testing program may already have a dedicated VA case file; that file often contains base assignment details useful for asbestos claims even though the program itself concerned chemical, not asbestos, exposure.