Asbestos exposure has profoundly impacted regions with significant military installations. Credit: Shutterstock

By Cristina Johnson
SAN MARCOS, California, USA, Aug 25 2025 (IPS)

For more than a century, asbestos was an indispensable fixture in the American industry, particularly the military. This versatile natural mineral was widely utilized to line Navy ships and strengthen their installations. What many were unaware of was that once damaged, asbestos-containing materials (ACMs) can release toxic fibers that could lodge in tissues covering internal organs of those exposed, where they build up over time.

This bioaccumulation causes severe inflammation and scarring over time, leading to life-threatening diseases such as lung cancer, asbestosis, and mesothelioma. Unfortunately, by the time the science was confirmed, service members had already been exposed, and thousands had tragically passed away.

Asbestos Nation’s map indicates that from 1999 to 2017, asbestos-related illnesses claimed the lives of 236,981 to 277,654 Americans—a toll that continues to rise. Annually, roughly 12,000 to 15,000 people succumbed to diseases that could have been prevented with immediate proactive measures.

Federal government attempted to curb the danger, although those actions were made only after asbestos contamination had already become pervasive. In 1989, the country’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) moved to restrict most ACMs .

Then, in 2002, the nation’s last asbestos mine finally shut down, which signaled what many hoped would be the end of domestic production.

Still, despite these significant milestones, chrysotile—the most exploited form of asbestos—remained legally accessible through imports and selective industrial applications. And such a critical oversight was only addressed in 2024 when the EPA pushed to prohibit the ongoing use of this mineral completely.

For the first time in a very long time, the US seemed poised to close the door on this lethal material. Now, the agency’s recent decision jeopardizes progress. Just this June 2025, EPA abruptly announced plans to reconsider the ban—a move that undermines enforcement, delays protections, and threatens to reopen the very channels of exposure the policy was designed to eliminate.

Veterans at a Disproportionate Risk of Asbestos Exposure

Asbestos exposure has profoundly impacted regions with significant military installations. Of these, California—which houses over 1.8 million veterans, the nation’s largest population of former service members—stands out as one of the most severely affected states.

Data show that between 1999 and 2017, more than 27,000 lives were lost to asbestos diseases in the Golden State alone, reflecting the repercussions stemming from the extensive use of ACMs in military bases such as the Naval Base San Diego and the now-decommissioned George Air Force Base.

Following California, Florida, and Pennsylvania—both of which host contaminated military and naval complexes like the old Naval Air Station Cecil Field and Naval Air Warfare Center Warminster—likewise logged more than 18,200 and 17,700 related deaths, respectively.

Among the asbestos-linked diseases, mesothelioma remains one of the most devastating, as it claimed nearly 55,000 American lives between 1999 and 2020 and accounted for around 2,000 to 3,000 new diagnoses each year.

Alarmingly, veterans across the country shoulder a heavier burden. Despite comprising only 6.1% of the adult population, they represent about a third of all mesothelioma cases reported yearly. Navy veterans’ asbestos exposure has been particularly severe, especially since their service required both living and working aboard vessels abundant in toxic materials.

True to that, research has shown that these veterans—along with merchant marine seamen—rank second in mesothelioma incidence, just next to the toll linked to the asbestos exposure of shipyard workers.

Why the Asbestos Ban Must Stand Firm

The EPA’s decision to revisit the chrysotile ban could unravel decades of progress in protecting public health. The science is apparent—no level of asbestos exposure is safe.

As such, weakening or delaying enforcement risks re-exposing workers, service members, and their families to supposedly preventable diseases. This reversal is particularly alarming in light of recent federal commitments to communities direly impacted by environmental toxins.

One notable example is the Honoring Our PACT Act of 2022—a bipartisan legislation—which expands access to healthcare and disability benefits for veterans suffering from service-related exposures, including asbestos.

While this legislation is indeed a step forward, its essential mission to support those who have sacrificed greatly for our nation may be jeopardized by concurrent policies that once again open the very channels of toxic exposure.

To retreat on the asbestos ban now would be to repeat the same mistakes that allowed this crisis to occur in the first place. A firm national ban is therefore more than a regulatory safeguard—it is a moral commitment.

By upholding the prohibition without compromise, policymakers can finally close a tragic chapter in the industrial and military past of the country while protecting future generations from the same fate.

About the Author

Cristina Johnson is a Navy veteran advocate for Asbestos Ships Organization, a nonprofit whose primary mission is to raise awareness about the dangers of asbestos exposure on Navy ships and assist veteransin navigating the VA claims process.

Two workers engaged in the removal of asbestos on the roof of a building where a cinema used to operate in the centre of the southern Spanish city of Málaga, in May 2014. Credit: Courtesy Plataforma Málaga Amianto Cero

By Inés Benítez
MÁLAGA, Spain , Feb 17 2015 (IPS)

“I would get asbestos in my mouth, spit it out and carry on working,” said 52-year-old Francisco Padilla. Exposure to this deadly mineral fibre over most of his working life has resulted in cancer and the removal of his left lung, the lung lining and part of his diaphragm.

Sitting on the sofa in his home in the southern Spanish city of Málaga, Padilla told Tierramérica with watering eyes that he has always looked after his health and has never smoked.

He used to cycle to and from the workshop where he has worked since the age of 18, until in May 2014 he was diagnosed with mesothelioma, an aggressive malignant tumor linked to occupational exposure to asbestos, and had to undergo radical surgery three months ago.“Thousands of people have died, are dying and will die in the future because of asbestos....its effects have been overwhelmingly silenced.” -- Activist Francisco Puche

The use of asbestos, a low-cost fire retardant and insulating material, was banned in Spain in 2002. Previously, however, it was widely used in construction, shipbuilding, and the steel, automotive and railway industries, among others.

Workers in these industries were at risk of contracting mesothelioma, lung cancer and asbestosis, whose symptoms could take 20 to 40 years to develop.

“Thousands of people have died, are dying and will die in the future because of asbestos. It is the great unknown factor, and its effects have been overwhelmingly silenced,” activist Francisco Puche of Málaga Amianto Cero, an anti-asbestos alliance, told Tierramérica.

Puche believes Europe should have “a plan for safe asbestos removal,” because the risk continues in spite of the bans.

He pointed out several water tanks made of cement containing asbestos fibres on the rooftop of a building in a central Málaga square, and warned that in their everyday lives, people are caught in a hazardous “spiderweb” of asbestos.

It is present in thousands of kilometres of water pipes, public and private buildings, warehouses, tunnels, machinery, ships and trains, although it is being progressively replaced by other materials.

Puche warned of the dangers involved in the deterioration and modification of structures containing asbestos, which breaks down into rigid microscopic fibrils that accumulate in the body by inhalation or ingestion.

Asbestos is banned in 55 countries, including the 28 members of the European Union, Argentina, Chile, Honduras and Uruguay. But more than two million tonnes a year are still being extracted worldwide, mainly in China, India, Russia, Brazil and Kazakhstan, according to the International Ban Asbestos Secretariat.

Every year 107,000 people worldwide die of lung cancer, asbestosis and mesothelioma linked to occupational exposure to asbestos, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

WHO estimates that 125 million people are in contact with asbestos in the workplace, and attributes thousands of other deaths a year to indirect contact with the material in the home.

“The asbestos issue shows the true face of a system that is only interested in profits,” said Puche, who is critical of “big business,” powerful lobbies linked to asbestos mining, and the “impunity” surrounding the illness and death of workers in Europe and around the world.

Swiss billionaire Stephan Schmidheiny, the former CEO of Eternit, a family business that set up asbestos factories across the globe in the 20th century, had been sentenced to 18 years in prison and payment of nearly one million euros (1.14 million dollars) in damages to thousands of victims. However his sentence was overturned by Italy’s highest court on Nov. 19, on the grounds that the statute of limitations had expired.

“The other day I heard that a retired workmate of mine had died of mesothelioma,” José Antonio Martínez, the head of the Málaga Asbestos Victims’ Association (AVIDA Málaga), told Tierramérica.

Many workers die before the occupational nature of their ailment is recognised, and they are deprived of their right to disability pensions and compensation for damages.

Francisco González , a worker with the state railway company RENFE, died in 2005 at the age of 55 from mesothelioma. His daughter Anabel told Tierramérica that she and her mother finally achieved an indemnity payment after “a long struggle, without any help and against many obstacles.”

Being vindicated was more important than the money,” she said, even though it took five years after her father’s death.

In Spain and other countries, asbestos victims and their families are forming associations for information, mutual support and justice. AVIDA Málaga was created in June 2014; it has nearly 200 members, and is part of the Spanish Federation of Associations of Asbestos Victims.

Victims are demanding the creation of a compensation fund for those affected, like ones that have been set up in Belgium and France, paid for by the state and the companies concerned, which often refuse to shoulder responsibility retroactively.

Asbestos was used for decades in more than 3,000 products, so even today plumbers, electricians, building demolition and maintenance workers and car mechanics may come across this hazardous material in the course of their jobs, facing health risks if they fail to take precautions.

Padilla, who has a 29-year-old son, is still waiting for confirmation of his occupational injury pension and plans to claim compensation. By law, he has up to one year to do so from May 2014, when he was diagnosed with an ailment on the list of occupational diseases.

His company recognised his cancer as a work-related illness without his having to resort to litigation. This made legal history in Spain, where many people die without getting justice.

Padilla had chemotherapy before his major surgery, and is now undergoing radiotherapy. His wife, Pepi Reyes, who attends these sessions with him, has been advised by the doctor to have medical tests herself, because she handled her husband’s work clothes for years.

A study by the European Union reports that half a million people are expected to die of mesothelioma and lung cancer by 2030, due to occupational exposure to asbestos in the 1980s and 1990s. The study analyses mortality in France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

Francisco Báez, a former worker for the transnational company Uralita in the southern Spanish city of Seville, is the author of the book “Amianto: un genocidio impune” (Asbestos: an unpunished genocide). He complained to Tierramérica about the double standards applied by countries that prohibit the material within their borders, yet abroad “they promote its use and profit financially from the installation and maintenance of asbestos sector industries.”

Padilla opened a window in his home and pointed out the corrugated asbestos cement roofs of the warehouses opposite. Afterwards he brought out his mobile phone and showed a photo of his long operation scar, all along his left side, and said he feels lucky to be alive.

This story was originally published by Latin American newspapers that are part of the Tierramérica network.

Edited by Estrella Gutiérrez/Translated by Valerie Dee

Asbestos cement roofing sheets. Credit: Asbestos Testing CC BY-SA 2.0

By Fabiana Frayssinet
RIO DE JANEIRO, Sep 3 2012 (IPS)

Brazil’s Supreme Court is assessing the level of risk posed by asbestos to human health, while industry defends its use under controlled conditions, and associations of people with asbestos-related diseases argue that it should not be used under any circumstances, even with regulations.

More than 35 experts testified in the Supreme Court hearings held on Aug. 24 and Aug. 31 in Brasilia at the request of the Brazilian Chrysotile Institute (IBC), which serves the asbestos industry that provides 170,000 direct jobs and generates 1.5 billion dollars a year in revenue.

Brazil is the world’s third-largest producer and exporter of chrysotile or white asbestos – the most commonly encountered form of asbestos – after Russia and China.

The Supreme Court, which is to determine whether a ban on the use of white asbestos issued in the southern state of São Paulo is constitutional, is due to hand down its ruling in 2013.

Asbestos is a heat-resistant fibrous silicate mineral banned in many countries around the world because of the risks to human health posed by prolonged inhalation of the fibres.

But in Brazil, a national law authorises the regulated use of asbestos, which is present in more than 3,000 different products, including fibre-cement roofing products, water tanks, and brake pads

“At no time have we said it is not dangerous to health,” Marina de Aquino, the president of the IBC, told IPS. “What we say is that here in Brazil we have known for many years how to work with asbestos in a safe, responsible way.”

But Eliezer de Souza, the head of the Brazilian Association of People Exposed to Asbestos (ABREA), said “anyone who defends asbestos is defending cancer.”

De Souza, 71, was diagnosed with lung cancer after working in an asbestos tile factory from 1968 to 1981.

The debate on the threat posed by asbestos was triggered by complaints by workers who, like de Souza, have diseases such as asbestosis, a chronic non-malignant scarring and hardening of the lungs, lung cancer, or mesothelioma – a formerly rare, aggressive cancer that affects the lining around the lungs, heart, chest or abdomen.

The countries where asbestos is banned include all of the members of the European Union, Turkey, Japan, South Korea, Argentina, Chile and Uruguay, while its use is regulated in the United States. But it continues to be used in 140 nations around the world.

The factory where de Souza worked, in Osasco in Greater São Paulo, closed its doors in 1993. “Fourteen years later we discovered that most of the workers were contaminated,” he said.

Of a total of 1,300 sick workers, 180 have died of diseases caused by exposure to asbestos. In addition, 12 women who washed their husbands’ work clothes by hand were intoxicated, he added.

In that area, the mortality rate for mesothelioma is five times higher than the national average, according to the health ministry.

“We are absolutely certain that asbestos is carcinogenic, and that they were deceiving us the whole time. We were poisoned by the company,” de Souza complained.

The president of the IBC clarified that most of the cases were caused by exposure prior to 1980, when imported amphibole asbestos was mainly used, without any standards or controls.

“Since it was confirmed in the 1970s that asbestos was causing an epidemic in Europe, Brazilian companies began to develop techniques for safe use,” de Aquino said.

The techniques include the elimination of air-borne asbestos particles and asbestos dust and of all physical contact with the mineral during production, transportation and handling.

In addition, companies, workers and the government carry out continuous analyses, inspections and controls, under a system of agreements considered a model for other countries, de Aquino said.

While Brazil’s national legislation establishes a limit on workplace exposure of 2 fibres of asbestos per cubic centimetre of air, all companies in the country work with a limit of 0.1 fibre per cubic centimetre, she stressed.

More than half of the roofing slates in the country are made of fibre cement, broadly used in the homes of poor families.

A study cited by the IBC, carried out among 4,200 workers by Dr. Ericson Bagatin, a professor at the State University of Campinas, found results in line with de Aquino’s claims.

Bagatin, a specialist in occupational medicine, told IPS that the longitudinal study was carried out over the space of 12 years, in three phases.

The first phase studied former workers from a mine in the northern state of Bahia who had been in contact with different kinds of asbestos between 1940 and 1967, when no regulations or standards were yet in place. Thirty-eight percent of the workers were found to be ill.

The second phase studied workers employed between 1967 and 1980 in a chrysotile asbestos mine in the central state of Goiás, and the proportion of illness found was lower.

The third phase involved workers from the same mine, in Goiás, but after 1980, when regulations and standards were put in place. And the number of cases shrank to zero, he said.

Bagatin said the conclusion reached was that no illness was observed when chrysotile asbestos was used and safety standards and controls were improved in the workplace.

But these arguments were questioned at the Supreme Court hearings by health ministry representative Guilherme Franco Netto, who noted that his ministry “recommends the elimination of any kind of use of chrysotile asbestos throughout the national territory.”

According to World Health Organisation (WHO) statistics presented by Franco Netto, 125 million workers throughout the world have been exposed to asbestos on the job, and one-third of all cases of work-related cancer are caused by inhalation of asbestos fibres.

WHO estimates that asbestos-related diseases kill more than 100,000 people a year worldwide.

Brazil’s Single Health System registered just over 25,000 cases of cancer caused by asbestos exposure from 2008 to 2011, and 2,400 deaths from 2000 to 2011.

In the hearings, the government’s secretariat of geology underscored the economic importance of the industry in Brazil.

But Dr. Eduardo Algranti, a researcher at the Jorge Duprat Figueiredo Foundation of Workplace Safety and Medicine, said “I feel tremendously ashamed that we are an exporter of health risks.”

Algranti said Brazil was committing “environmental racism” by selling a product to countries that do not have adequate control mechanisms or standards.

Furthermore, “some 140 countries use asbestos, but few use it as much as Brazil, where it represents a cumulative risk to the population,” he said.

Between 1975 and 2009, more than six million tons of asbestos were produced in this country of 192 million people, 80 percent of which remained in Brazil, in products and waste products.

“We ourselves have no hope left. We are working on behalf of the coming generations,” de Souza said.