A visual historical review of exposure to asbestos at puget sound naval shipyard (1962-1972)

Our plain-English summary of A visual historical review of exposure to asbestos at puget sound naval shipyard (1962-1972), by D.M. Hollins, D.J. Paustenbach, K. Clark, et al (Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health. Part B, Critical Reviews, 2009).

The study

• Authors: D.M. Hollins, D.J. Paustenbach, K. Clark, C.A. Mangold
• Journal: Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health. Part B, Critical Reviews
• Published: 2009;12(2):124-56
• Type of article: Historical article, Review
• Cited by: 14 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

Abstract

The study of occupational exposure to asbestos has been an ongoing activity for at least 75 years, dating back to the papers of Merewether and Price (1930). Since that time, literally tens of thousands of air samples have been collected in an attempt to characterize the concentration of asbestos associated with various activities. Many of the individuals who developed diseases from the 1970s to the current day were often exposed to very high airborne concentrations because of direct or indirect exposure to either raw asbestos fiber or insulation during the approximate 1940-1970 time period. Often, these high exposures were associated with work in shipyards during and after World War II and the Korean War, as well as with decommissioning, which continued into the mid-1970s. This study reviews the historical asbestos concentrations measured in shipyards and presents a visual illustration of typical conditions and work practices. A majority of the photographs presented in this article depict work conditions at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, circa 1940-1965, which is representative of other military shipyards of the time.

In plain English

This article was a pictorial historical review rather than a new measurement study. The authors described the work of naval shipyard insulators and presented photographs taken or collected by co-author Carl Mangold, an industrial hygienist at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard (PSNS) from 1962 to 1972. Amosite and chrysotile, and to a lesser extent crocidolite, were used in ship insulation. The photographs showed pipe coverers applying asbestos insulation in ship machinery spaces with dust visible on their clothes and no respirators or protective clothing. The authors noted that workers took their work clothes home. Airborne levels in the article came from earlier studies. For example, Harries (1971b) reported breathing-zone levels of 0.04 to 68 fibers/cc during application of pipe and machinery lagging. The authors described 1960s controls at PSNS, such as premixing cement dockside, and stated that these markedly reduced insulators' exposures. The authors concluded that excessive asbestos doses certainly played a role in asbestos-related disease among shipyard insulators. They noted that the factor for converting old particle counts to fiber counts may vary significantly.

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

What the study did and found

• Design: Pictorial historical review. It describes shipyard work activities, presents photographs, and cites airborne asbestos concentrations from earlier published and unpublished studies. It reports no new air sampling.
• Who was studied: Workers at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard (PSNS), mainly pipe coverers and insulators. They are shown in photographs taken or collected by co-author Mangold, who worked as an industrial hygienist at PSNS from 1962 to 1972. No number of workers is given.
• Exposure: Asbestos-containing ship insulation, including felt, pipe covering (half-rounds), block insulation, cloth and cement. The fibers were amosite and chrysotile, and crocidolite to a lesser extent.
• Main results:
  • Photographs of insulators applying insulation in machinery spaces of a naval vessel under construction at PSNS showed asbestos dust on their clothes and on pipes, with no protective clothing or respirators.
  • The authors stated that respirators were not routinely used by workers circa 1940 to 1960.
  • The authors stated that PSNS workers took their work clothes home, where family exposures might then occur.
  • Co-author Mangold estimated that approximately 34.4 tons of asbestos-containing products were in the machinery spaces of FLETCHER-Class destroyers.
  • Earlier studies (Fleisher et al., 1946; Ferris et al., 1971), not this article, reported averages of 4.8 and 7.2 million particles per cubic foot when laying out, unrolling and cutting insulating felt. The authors converted these to approximately 28.8 and 43.2 fibers/cc.
  • An earlier study (Harries, 1971b), not this article, reported fiber concentrations during application of pipe and machinery lagging in shipboard machinery spaces. Breathing-zone samples ranged from 0.04 to 68 fibers/cc and area samples from 0.1 to 61 fibers/cc.
  • At PSNS, cement mixing was moved dockside and the mixed cement was supplied in sealed buckets. The authors stated that such changes in work practices markedly reduced insulators' exposures; no PSNS measurements are given for this.
  • According to Mangold, insulators disliked the new down-draft ventilated work tables and covered the holes with plywood.
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that the excessive asbestos doses shipyard insulators received from handling asbestos-containing insulation certainly played a role in the asbestos-related disease observed in this population.
• Limitations the authors state:
  • The factor for converting million particles per cubic foot to fibers per cubic centimeter may vary significantly depending on fiber type and source material.
  • The effectiveness of any local exhaust ventilation at the photographed felt-cutting workstations is not known.
  • It is unknown whether the cleanup vacuums used HEPA filtration.

Topics

The National Library of Medicine indexes this study under subjects our site covers: Asbestosis, Shipyards and maritime work, The Navy.

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Occupational Exposure.

Related studies

• Asbestos exposure control at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard — R.R. Beckett (1976)
• A review of historical exposures to asbestos among skilled craftsmen (1940-2006) — P.R. Williams, A.D. Phelka, et al. (2007)
• Case-control study of lung cancer in civilian employees at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Kittery, Maine — R.A. Rinsky, J.M. Melius, et al. (1988)
• A nested case-control study of lung cancer risk and ionizing radiation exposure at the portsmouth naval shipyard — J.H. Yiin, S.R. Silver, et al. (2007)
• Radiographic search for asbestos-related disease in a naval shipyard — J.S. Felton (1979)
• Cancer incidence in relation to asbestos in drinking water in the Puget Sound region — L. Polissar, R.K. Severson, et al. (1982)

Browse more research in Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health. Part B, Critical Reviews, or return to medical research.