David Tate has published a short guest post by Allen Dutton on the dangers of asbestos for the US military. The article is good, but the real gem is this infographic from Asbestos.com depicting the level of asbestos exposure by compartment on what looks like an Iowa class battleship. I wish I knew the original source of the data. Click on the image for a full sized version.
Christopher Albon is a Ph.D. candidate specializing in armed conflict, public health, human security, and health diplomacy.
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Disregarding that this 65 year-old ship is hardly representative of the modern Navy (or even the often-vintage USCG), I must take exception to the statement that this is a figure “. . . depicting the level of asbestos exposure by compartment. . . .” Presence of a material simply does not mean exposure. The asbestos must get airborne and into someones lungs, perhaps settling and resuspending in the interim. The pipe lagging in the passageway will get knocked around alot and make dust, but the cable trays above your work center and the transite panels next to your rack aren’t going to bother you unless you punch holes in them. Then again, I’m not even going to start discussing vibration.
Certainly there is asbestos still in use in the military, and certainly all exposures are not tracked. That being said, all the services have modern occupational medical monitoring programs and hazmat inventory systems to try to stem this tide of disease. With direct experience in these programs I can tell you many claims of asbestos exposure involve (1) serving near intact encapsulated asbestos containing material and (2) exposure to fiberglass, gypsum, and other non-asbestos materials.
There is a huge body of work available on asbestos exposure estimation and risk assesssment, and much nuance which simply cannot be captured in a 300 word article.
You are right TEJ. That is why I wanted to find the original source. I am unsure if the graphic shows presence of asbestos, or is from a study of exposure. The graphic’s title “Levels of Risk for Asbestos Exposure” makes me think it is the former. Also, the graphic (if it is really from an Iowa-class) is certainly not representative of the modern Navy.
Still, the graphic is interesting.
The site asbestos.com (Allen Dutton’s employer) is a for profit site that works to generate cases for asbestos lawyers. The image and resulting post are nothing more than advertising potential plaintiffs.
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