『Episode 32 — The Invisible Enemy Within』のカバーアート

Episode 32 — The Invisible Enemy Within

Episode 32 — The Invisible Enemy Within

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S1E32 — The Invisible Enemy WithinThe Asbestos Podcast · Season 1 · Arc 7: The Truth Emerges (Episode 3)Episode 32 — The Invisible Enemy Within1939. A Navy Medical Officer recommends respirators for pipe covering workers. The recommendation goes nowhere. 1941. Commander Charles S. Stephenson writes to the Surgeon General: "I am certain that we are not protecting the men as we should." No documented response. No policy change. 1943. The Navy publishes comprehensive safety requirements for asbestos work — Section 11.1, requiring respiratory protection, segregated work, periodic medical exams. Requirements that are never enforced. Fifty years later, a federal judge would call what followed "official connivance at coverup of the hazards of asbestos in the shipyards."3.4 million Americans served in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War. Every Navy vessel in the fleet contained asbestos. The men below decks — working in engine rooms above 130 degrees Fahrenheit, in spaces so thick with asbestos fibers a gunner's mate once described it as watching snow fall inside the ship — were never told. Not once. Not by the Navy. Not by the manufacturers. Not by anyone.Episode 32 documents what the Navy knew, when they knew it, and what they chose not to do with that knowledge.Key TakeawaysThe Navy's knowledge timeline (1939-1973) — 1939: Navy Medical Officer H.E. Jenkins recommends respirators. 1941: Commander Stephenson writes directly to the Surgeon General warning of inadequate protection. 1943: The Navy publishes Section 11.1 — comprehensive asbestos safety requirements for contract shipyards. A federal judge later found those requirements "were not enforced in naval shipyards" and that there was "official connivance at coverup." Sailors below decks received none of this. No respirators. No warnings. No monitoring. For thirty years.Walter Twidwell — Navy boiler tender, 1954-1973. Seven ships. Korea through Vietnam. The insulation on every pipe, every valve, every surface: white, fibrous, dusty. No respirator. No warning. When he retired, he built a log cabin in Washington State. Took daily walks with a miniature dachshund named Hiram. Hosted reading contests for schoolchildren. March 2017, at age 81: a persistent cough, shortness of breath, an X-ray showing a mass. "There is no cure for it. Do you have all your paperwork in order?" When Walter learned the Navy had required respirators since 1943 — and never told him — he said: "I didn't want to sue my government, and I damn sure didn't want to sue the Navy, 'cause they're still feeding me." A friend called the lawyers on his behalf. August 2018: a New York jury awarded Walter Twidwell $40.1 million against Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company. Deliberation time: less than two hours. Walter died approximately a year later.What it was actually like below decks — 130-170 degrees Fahrenheit. 112 decibels — above the Navy's own threshold for double hearing protection, making verbal communication physically impossible. 3-4 hour watches in confined spaces. Boiler room insulation ranging from 5 to 99 percent amosite asbestos. And when the ship's guns fired: vibration shaking the insulation loose. A gunner's mate on USS Chevalier testified: "There was so much airborne asbestos that it looked like it was snowing inside the vessel."Bob Niemiec — USS Hermitage, entered service 1965. First assignment out of boot camp: scraping paint that contained asbestos. Nobody told him. Thirty years later, while umpiring baseball games, breathing problems. September 2019: two masses on his lungs, three collapsed lungs in succession, eight hours of surgery. Pleural mesothelioma. Prognosis: ten months to live. Bob decided: "I'm not going to take radiation and chemo and be sick with whatever time I have left." He takes over-the-counter pain medication. Nothing else. As of late 2024, Bob Niemiec was still alive — more than five years past his ten-month prognosis. His wife Jeannie: "They all said it's impossible medically for this man to still be alive. So it's just not his time to go."The VA policy most veterans don't know — Mesothelioma is NOT on the VA's presumptive list for asbestos exposure. Unlike Agent Orange or burn pit exposure, a veteran with mesothelioma must prove three things individually: a current diagnosis, service records demonstrating asbestos exposure likely occurred, and a medical nexus opinion connecting the diagnosis to service. Even with every Navy ship documented as containing asbestos. Even with 30 percent of mesothelioma patients being veterans. The burden remains on the veteran to prove what the Navy already knew for decades.Key Statistics1939, 1941, 1943 — the Navy's documented knowledge of asbestos hazards, predating widespread veteran exposure30 years — the period during which known safety requirements went unenforced for sailors3.4 million — Americans who served in the Vietnam theater, all aboard ships the Navy knew contained ...
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