General Dynamics Electric Boat

Established in 1899, Electric Boat builds submarines for the United States Navy. The company’s primary operations are a shipyard in Groton, Connecticut, a hull fabrication and outfitting facility in Quonset Point, Rhode Island, and an engineering office in New London, Connecticut.

Electric Boat used large amounts of asbestos-containing materials in its submarines until the 1970s. Clinical examinations of Electric Boat workers in the Groton shipyard by famed asbestos researcher Dr. Irving J. Selikoff found that about half of the workers had abnormalities characteristic of asbestos exposure. Many former Electric Boat shipyard workers have filed lawsuits seeking compensation from asbestos companies that supplied asbestos to Electric Boat.

Belluck & Fox is a New York mesothelioma law firm with a national reputation for excellence in asbestos law. We travel around the country to meet with mesothelioma patients and help them hold asbestos companies accountable. If you served on a Navy submarine or worked at Electric Boat and have now been diagnosed with mesothelioma, lung cancer or asbestosis, contact us to schedule a free case review.

Asbestos Use and the Navy

Asbestos was used in Navy submarines and other military vessels due to the material’s light weight and high insulation. By the time the U.S. entered World War II, asbestos and asbestos-containing products were critical to the naval fleet. Asbestos insulation was used on external surfaces of a ship’s steam propulsion systems. Asbestos insulation was also used in gaskets and other components of the propulsion system.

Each naval submarine contained approximately 60,000 pounds of asbestos thermal insulation. Asbestos insulation and other asbestos-containing materials in Navy submarines could be found in areas that included:

 

 

Asbestos exposure was widespread among Navy personnel and shipyard employees working on ship construction, ship repair and ship maintenance from the 1930s to the 1980s. Even after asbestos materials were phased out by the Navy in the 1970s, in later years, those who worked on asbestos-containing submarines were exposed to asbestos dust.

If you are a Navy veteran or shipyard worker who has been diagnosed with mesothelioma or another asbestos disease, the attorneys at Belluck & Fox can advise you of your rights to full and fair compensation. You should know that you would not be suing the Navy, rather, compensation comes from the asbestos companies responsible for selling dangerous products to the military. To learn more, please contact us today.

Asbestos Exposure at Electric Boat in Groton, CT

Before 1950, Electric Boat primarily built diesel-electric submarines, which required relatively small amounts of asbestos due to the absence of high-temperature steam lines. In 1951, Electric Boat announced its contract to build the Nautilus — the world’s first nuclear submarine. From that time forward, Electric Boat’s Groton shipyard built mostly nuclear submarines, and asbestos use increased.

From 1975 to 1976, Dr. Irving J. Selikoff — an award-winning researcher known for definitively proving the link between asbestos exposure and diseases like mesothelioma — performed clinical examinations of 1,000 employees of the Electric Boat Company in Groton, Connecticut. Selikoff’s findings showed that roughly half of the workers in the Groton yard had X-ray abnormalities consistent with asbestos exposure.

“The abnormalities were found not only in insulators who used asbestos, but in all production trades,” Selikoff said. “Asbestos was a ubiquitous contaminant in the yard with many workmen exposed.”

As a follow-up to his initial examination of Electric Boat workers, Selikoff performed a mortality study of 1,918 workers from the shipyard who spent at least 10 years working there in various trades. The workers included pipefitters, boilermakers, painters, carpenters, electricians, machinists, laborers and foundry workers.

Of the 1,918 workers studied, 356 of them had died at the time the study was completed in 1984. The findings indicated an excess of mortality of all causes, and in particular of cancers of the lung and gastrointestinal tract, as well as from respiratory disease.

“The excesses of cancer are of sites that are known to be related to asbestos exposure, a material commonly used in the Electric Boat Shipyard,” Selikoff said.

Learn more about asbestos exposure in shipyards.

Submarines Built by Electric Boat

Shipyard workers at Electric Boat in Groton, Connecticut, were responsible for constructing an impressive number of submarines for the U.S. military, including the following vessels:

 

Electric Boat Workers File Asbestos Lawsuits

By the time Selikoff’s report on the Groton shipyard was released, hundreds of Electric Boat workers had already filed asbestos exposure lawsuits against the companies that supplied asbestos to the shipyard. They claimed that those companies had failed to provide warnings about the health hazards of inhaling asbestos fibers. One of the defendants in the case — Johns-Manville Corporation — knew about the health risks of asbestos since at least the 1930s.

Although the U.S. Navy and Electric Boat phased out use of asbestos materials in the 1980s, the long latency period of asbestos disease means that workers exposed to asbestos decades ago are still at risk of developing mesothelioma, lung cancer and asbestosis. To this day, former workers at the Electric Boat Groton shipyard continue to file lawsuits against the companies responsible for their asbestos disease.

Get Help from a National Leader in Asbestos Litigation

The New York mesothelioma attorneys at Belluck & Fox travel across the United States to meet with mesothelioma patients and their families with the goal of securing maximum compensation from asbestos companies. Based in New York, we have earned a national reputation for asbestos law excellence due to groundbreaking wins in mesothelioma cases and more than $1 billion recovered for our clients.

If you have been diagnosed with asbestos disease, our experienced attorneys can help. To get started, you can visit our New York office or call to schedule a free consultation now.

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