Asbestos Exposure in the Military

The most common place where people have experienced asbestos exposure is in the workplace. The work sites with some of the highest rates of asbestos related disease may come as a surprise: the US Armed Forces’ ships and installations around the world. Veterans are more than three times as likely to develop mesothelioma as those who have never served in the military. Mesothelioma is a rare and fatal cancer caused by asbestos exposure.

Asbestos Exposure in the Navy
While members of every branch of the military run a higher risk of asbestos disease than the civilian population, the Navy has the highest rates of asbestos exposure. Members of the Navy and civilians who built and serviced naval vessels worked in an environment awash in deadly asbestos fibers.

Because asbestos is a good heat insulator, US Navy ships built between 1930 and the early 1970s were loaded with the toxic mineral. It was used for insulation in boiler rooms and around piping that ran throughout the ships. Asbestos was also used to construct rooms and entranceways in areas of the ship that might be prone to fire, since it is also resistant to fire.

One of the greatest risk factors for developing mesothelioma, asbestos-caused lung cancer, or other asbestos related disease is a stint working in the boiler room of a Navy ship. In the heat and hustle, it was not uncommon for tiny asbestos fibers to come loose. Floating through the air and invisible to the naked eye, these fibers were easily inhaled and could stick and stay in the lungs.

Because mesothelioma usually takes decades to develop, Navy veterans are still being diagnosed with this and other diseases caused by asbestos exposure that may have occurred forty or more years ago.

Asbestos Exposure in the Army

Starting in the early 1980s, the US Armed Forces stopped using asbestos as an insulator and construction material. The legacy of asbestos lingered on much longer, though, since buildings constructed with asbestos-laden materials continued to be used for many more years. And military vehicles like trucks, cars, and motorcycles used asbestos brakes and other parts.

Veterans of the Marines and Air Force, as well as the Army, may have suffered asbestos exposure while they worked and lived in buildings on military bases that were built with asbestos in ceiling tiles, insulation, or other parts of the structures. In addition, asbestos brake linings were used on military vehicles which may have remained in service for years after the toxic properties of asbestos were understood or the dangers simply ignored. Service members who worked repairing those vehicles may have a special risk of asbestos exposure.

The US Department of Veterans Affairs provides a list of military occupations that are particularly associated with asbestos exposure: “mining, milling, shipyard work, insulation work, demolition of old buildings, carpentry and construction, the manufacturing and installation of products such as flooring, roofing, cement sheet, pipe products, or the servicing of friction products such as clutch facings and brake linings.” Even if you didn’t fill one of these roles, you may have been exposed to asbestos during your military service if you were around others doing those tasks.

Asbestos Exposure in Vietnam and Beyond

One group of veterans who appear to have an elevated chance of asbestos exposure are those who served in Vietnam. During their deployment, military ships, vehicles, and structures would all still have contained asbestos.

One of the times where there is the greatest hazard of asbestos exposure is during removal of asbestos from boiler rooms and infrastructure. Construction workers who engage in this type of work today wear special protective gear. During Vietnam, some soldiers were tasked with ripping out asbestos-laden materials, often without proper protective gear.

The US Department of Veterans Affairs also notes that veterans who served in Iraq and other Middle Eastern countries may have been subjected to asbestos exposure. Although the conflicts in the Middle East happened after the military had stopped building with asbestos, hazardous fibers may have been released when buildings built in previous decades were damaged or destroyed in the fighting.

VA Benefits and Mesothelioma

The Veterans Administration does offer healthcare for veterans suffering from mesothelioma and other diseases caused by asbestos exposure during their military service. If you have an asbestos-related disease due to asbestos exposure in the military, you are eligible to apply for disability benefits through the VA.

In fact, the VA even has special centers at some of its facilities which employ experts in mesothelioma care. Veterans can travel to these centers or receive care remotely from the specialists there.

The good news is that the cost of mesothelioma care at the VA is likely to be lower than if you pursue treatment through private insurance. The VA gives highest priority to veterans with mesothelioma, so you shouldn’t have to wait for care – once you are approved for benefits.

The bad news is that these VA benefits are not always easy to claim for diseases due to asbestos exposure. Because mesothelioma takes so long to manifest, it can be difficult to prove that your asbestos exposure took place during your military service.

Compensation for Veterans

Veterans with mesothelioma or other asbestos diseases have another option to seek compensation for their illness. Like civilians who suffer from the long term consequences of asbestos exposure, veterans have the right to file a lawsuit against the corporations that manufactured or sold the asbestos materials that made them sick.

If you served in the military prior to the late 1990s and you develop mesothelioma or another disease caused by asbestos exposure, you should talk to an experienced asbestos attorney. An asbestos lawyer can guide you through the process of claiming compensation for your illness, pain and suffering, and lost wages. A lawyer can help you protect your rights and receive the compensation you and your family need to insure that you get the best possible healthcare and that your family is taken care of once you are gone.

source: kazanlaw.com

US Navy Yard in Washington locked down amid reported shooting

WASHINGTON - Police on Thursday responded to a report of a shooter at the US Navy Yard in Washington, where a gunman killed 12 people in 2013, and the military installation was on lockdown with employees sheltering in place.

No further details were provided.

A police officer and local media said authorities were responding to a report of an active shooter at the facility. Reuters could not immediately verify the report.

"No incident can be confirmed as of yet," the Navy said.

The lockdown comes amid heightened security concerns ahead of the U.S. Independence Day holiday weekend.

The Navy Yard, a military installation in the nation's capital, was the site of a 2013 shooting in which a contractor killed 12 people.

The US Park Police did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

More than eight blocks of nearby roads were shutdown as authorities responded to the scene, the Metropolitan Police Department said. — Reuters

US Navy to test futuristic, super-fast gun at sea in 2016

WASHINGTON - The US Navy is planning sea trials for a weapon that can fire a low-cost, 23-pound (10-kg) projectile at seven times the speed of sound using electromagnetic energy, a "Star Wars" technology that will make enemies think twice, the Navy's research chief said.

Rear Admiral Matthew Klunder, the chief of Naval Research, told a round table group recently the futuristic electromagnetic rail gun had already undergone extensive testing on land and would be mounted on the USNS Millinocket, a high-speed vessel, for sea trials beginning in 2016.

"It's now reality and it's not science fiction. It's actually real. You can look at it. It's firing," said Klunder, who planned to discuss progress on the system later on Monday with military and industry leaders at a major maritime event—the Sea-Air-Space Exposition—near Washington.

"It will help us in air defense, it will help us in cruise missile defense, it will help us in ballistic missile defense," he said. "We're also talking about a gun that's going to shoot a projectile that's about one one-hundredth of the cost of an existing missile system today."

The Navy research chief said that cost differential—$25,000 for a rail gun projectile versus $500,000 to $1.5 million for a missile—will make potential enemies think twice about the economic viability of engaging US forces.

"That ... will give our adversaries a huge moment of pause to go: 'Do I even want to go engage a naval ship?'" Klunder told reporters. "You could throw anything at us, frankly, and the fact that we now can shoot a number of these rounds at a very affordable cost, it's my opinion that they don't win."

US officials have voiced concerns that tight defense budgets could cause the Pentagon to lose its technological edge over China, Russia and other rivals, who have been developing antiship ballistic missile systems and integrated air defenses capable of challenging US air and naval dominance.

Weapons like the electromagnetic rail gun could help US forces retain their edge and give them an asymmetric advantage over rivals, making it too expensive to use missiles to attack US warships because of the cheap way to defeat them.

Rail guns use electromagnetic energy known as the Lorenz Force to launch a projectile between two conductive rails. The high-power electric pulse generates a magnetic field to fire the projectile with very little recoil, officials said.

The US Navy has funded two single-shot rail gun prototypes, one by privately held General Atomics and the other by BAE Systems. Klunder said he had selected BAE for the second phase of the project, which will look at developing a system capable of firing multiple shots in succession.

Current projectiles leaving a rail gun have a muzzle energy of about 32 megajoules of force, said Rear Admiral Bryant Fuller, the Navy's chief engineer. He said one megajoule would move a one-ton object at about 100 mph (160 kph).

"We're talking about a projectile that we're going to send well over 100 miles (160 km), we're talking about a projectile that can go over Mach 7 (5,328 mph/8,575 kph), we're talking about a projectile that can go well into the atmosphere," Klunder said.

Ships can carry dozens of missiles, but they could be loaded with hundreds of rail gun projectiles, he said.

"Your magazine never runs out, you just keep shooting, and that's compelling," Klunder said.

The 2016 sea trials will be conducted aboard the joint forces high-speed cargo ship because it has the space to carry the system on its deck and in its cargo bay. Officials said they would begin looking at integrating the system into warships after 2018. —Reuters

source: gmanetwork.com