The Bureau of Medicine and Surgery (BUMED) — the Navy’s medical service organization — operated the occupational health infrastructure responsible for identifying and monitoring asbestos-related disease among Navy workers and military personnel throughout the 1970s and 1980s. BUMED commands at naval shipyards, shore installations, and specialized centers administered medical surveillance programs that documented the scope of asbestos exposure in the Navy’s workforce.
Long Beach Naval Shipyard Asbestos Surveillance
Publicly filed expert testimony documents a Navy physician’s service at the Long Beach Naval Shipyard, where the physician “specifically assisted in the asbestos medical surveillance program of over 2,000 employees” — following 200 active cases of asbestos disease at any given time during the surveillance program. This documented program scale reflects the extent of recognized asbestos disease among workers at a single naval shipyard and the operational demands on BUMED occupational health resources.
The surveillance program at Long Beach — one of the Navy’s major West Coast shipyards — was one of multiple such programs operated at naval shipyards and shore installations nationwide. Comparable programs operated at other naval shipyards including Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Norfolk Naval Shipyard, and Charleston Naval Shipyard.
Naval Environmental Health Center
Following the Long Beach assignment, the same Navy physician was assigned to the Naval Environmental Health Center at Norfolk, Virginia, “during which time he designed occupational medical programs with regard to Navy asbestos exposure.” The Naval Environmental Health Center (NEHC) was BUMED’s specialized occupational and environmental health command, responsible for developing and implementing Navy-wide policies and programs for hazardous substance management including asbestos.
The NEHC’s work on asbestos programs represented institutional acknowledgment within the Navy’s medical establishment of the scope of asbestos-related disease risk in the naval workforce — further documented in the OPNAV and SECNAV asbestos control instructions issued beginning in 1974.
January 1960 Occupational Hazards Release
A January 15, 1960 BUMED Occupational Hazards Release summarizing “significant information on occupational health and industrial hygiene” is documented in publicly filed asbestos litigation records. This 1960 document demonstrates that BUMED was actively distributing asbestos hazard information within the Navy’s occupational health system over a decade before the formal OPNAVINST program was established — establishing the Navy’s institutional knowledge of asbestos health risks at a relatively early date.
Shore Duty Medical Personnel and Asbestos
Navy Medical Service Corps officers, Hospital Corpsmen, and civilian medical personnel assigned to BUMED commands, naval hospital occupational health clinics, and the Naval Environmental Health Center who participated in asbestos surveillance programs conducted workplace inspections and medical evaluations in active asbestos-exposure environments. Their professional role placed them in the same industrial settings — naval shipyards, boiler plants, and maintenance facilities — where the asbestos exposure they were documenting was occurring.
Documentation for VA Claims
Veterans who served in BUMED commands or participated in Navy asbestos surveillance programs may have service records identifying their occupational health activities in asbestos-exposure environments. These records can form part of the documentation supporting VA presumptive service connection claims under 38 CFR § 3.309(d) for diagnoses of mesothelioma, asbestosis, or asbestos-related lung cancer.