Pearl Harbor / Mare Island / Portsmouth Naval Shipyards
Plaintiffs alleged asbestos exposure at Pearl Harbor / Mare Island / Portsmouth Naval Shipyards plants in California. Premises-liability information for California workers.
Pearl Harbor / Mare Island / Portsmouth Naval Shipyards — Plants in California
Plaintiffs alleged in publicly filed U.S. asbestos personal-injury and wrongful-death litigation that they were exposed to asbestos while working at Pearl Harbor / Mare Island / Portsmouth Naval Shipyards plants in California. This page documents the California portion of Pearl Harbor / Mare Island / Portsmouth Naval Shipyards’s multi-state operations. For the full corporate summary and plants in other states, see the Pearl Harbor / Mare Island / Portsmouth Naval Shipyards manufacturer page.
Premises Description
Three additional principal U.S. Navy federal shipyards operated through the asbestos era:
Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard (Oahu HI — founded 1908; today Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility) — Pacific Fleet nuclear-submarine and surface-ship overhaul
Mare Island Naval Shipyard (Vallejo CA — founded 1854; closed 1996 after BRAC) — historic West Coast Navy submarine and surface-ship construction and overhaul
Portsmouth Naval Shipyard (Kittery ME on the New Hampshire border — founded 1800) — East Coast Navy submarine overhaul specialist
Each operated through the asbestos era with extensive asbestos-containing marine materials throughout Navy ship construction, overhaul, and repair work.
Plaintiffs alleged in publicly filed U.S. asbestos personal-injury and wrongful-death litigation that Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard, Mare Island Naval Shipyard, and Portsmouth Naval Shipyard exposed federal shipyard workforce and Navy ratings to extensive asbestos.
Workers Exposed
Federal shipyard machinists, pipefitters, boilermakers, electricians, insulators at all three federal shipyards
Navy machinist mates and engineering ratings aboard ships under overhaul
Contractor trade workers dispatched to these federal shipyards
If You Worked at Pearl Harbor, Mare Island, or Portsmouth Naval Shipyard
If you worked at Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard, Mare Island Naval Shipyard, or Portsmouth Naval Shipyard during the asbestos era — as a federal shipyard employee or as a Navy rating aboard a ship at the yard — and have since been diagnosed with mesothelioma, asbestosis, lung cancer, or another asbestos-related illness, you may have legal rights.
Shipyard and naval asbestos exposure like this is a leading cause of mesothelioma, often diagnosed decades later. If you or a family member worked here:
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Firsthand Accounts from the Trades
Did you work at Pearl Harbor / Mare Island / Portsmouth Naval Shipyards? Add your account.
Records show what a plant was. They don't show what the work was like. If you
were sent there — insulation, pipe, boilers, sheet metal, electrical, laborer — tell us what you
remember: which units or buildings, what you handled, what came down during an outage. Every account
helps another worker or a family understand where exposure happened, and where to look next.
About these accounts: they are personal recollections shared by
workers and their families — individual memory, not records, and not independently verified.
The site history and documented exposure record on this page come from public and regulatory sources.
These accounts sit alongside that record — they add to it, they don't change it.
What asbestos exposure pathways are associated with Pearl Harbor / Mare Island / Portsmouth Naval Shipyards?
Pathways in this report refer to commonly used asbestos-containing material systems at industrial facilities that may contribute to exposure practices, fiber transfer, and deposition. Activities include maintenance, repair, overhaul, and demolition across these systems.
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Facility History
Operations established during the high-use era of asbestos specification
Demolition, renovation notifications, and certification activity
1990s–Present
Level 1B
Supports material category documentation and trade activity
OSHA / EPA RecordsFederal
Inspections, enforcement, compliance, and regulatory publications
1970s–Present
Level 1B
Includes regulatory records relevant to facility activity and material use
Facility RecordsPrimary
Plant records, permits, reports, and facility specifications
Construction–Present
Level 4
Publicly available facility records and historical documents
If you've been diagnosed with mesothelioma or an asbestos-related disease and worked at Pearl Harbor / Mare Island / Portsmouth Naval Shipyards, you may have legal rights.
O'Brien Law Firm · Attorneys with experience working in California
General Equipment Walkthrough
Equipment systems documented or commonly present at Pearl Harbor / Mare Island / Portsmouth Naval Shipyards. Each link opens a research crosswalk on AsbestosIndex with manufacturer, trust-fund, and product history.
Equipment list drawn from public litigation records, EPA / state DNR filings, and facility-type defaults. Specific product identification depends on facility records and witness testimony.
Plaintiffs allegedly worked at the Johns-Manville Lompoc CA bulk asbestos-fiber processing plant. …
Pearl Harbor / Mare Island / Portsmouth Naval Shipyards — California Plant Asbestos Exposure — Frequently Asked Questions
Is Pearl Harbor / Mare Island / Portsmouth Naval Shipyards — California Plant Asbestos Exposure documented in asbestos litigation records?
Yes. Pearl Harbor / Mare Island / Portsmouth Naval Shipyards — California Plant Asbestos Exposure is documented in public asbestos litigation records, EPA NESHAP filings, OSHA inspection logs, and/or state regulatory databases. Workers at industrial facilities of this era routinely encountered asbestos-containing materials in pipe insulation, gaskets, packing, boiler block, refractory products, floor and ceiling tiles, and electrical components.
Which workers had the highest asbestos exposure at Pearl Harbor / Mare Island / Portsmouth Naval Shipyards — California Plant Asbestos Exposure?
Trades with documented asbestos exposure at industrial facilities include pipefitters, insulators (laggers), boilermakers, millwrights, electricians, welders, sheet-metal workers, plumbers, carpenters, machinists, painters, and general laborers. Maintenance crews, refractory bricklayers, and shutdown contractors often had the most concentrated exposure during overhaul and tear-out work.
What asbestos products did workers handle at Pearl Harbor / Mare Island / Portsmouth Naval Shipyards — California Plant Asbestos Exposure?
Asbestos-containing products commonly documented at industrial facilities of this era include thermal pipe lagging and block insulation (steam lines, valves, boilers), asbestos cement, refractory brick and burner-front gun-block, gaskets and braided packing (valves, pumps, flanges), boiler-tube insulation and lagging, vinyl asbestos floor tile, acoustic ceiling tile, and asbestos-containing transite board. Specific product manufacturers are catalogued at AsbestosIndex.
Is there a deadline to file an asbestos claim in California?
California law gives 5 years from the date of medical diagnosis to file a personal-injury asbestos lawsuit. Wrongful-death claims must be filed within 3 years from the date of death. The two deadlines run on separate tracks. The personal-injury clock starts at diagnosis, not at exposure — mesothelioma latency is typically 20 to 50 years.
Who else besides Pearl Harbor / Mare Island / Portsmouth Naval Shipyards — California Plant Asbestos Exposure workers may have been exposed?
Yes. Spouses who laundered work clothing carrying asbestos fibers and children of workers who returned home covered in dust are recognized in California asbestos litigation as eligible for secondary (household) exposure claims when they have been diagnosed with an asbestos-related disease. Wrongful-death claims may be filed by surviving family members.
Can workers file both a civil suit and trust-fund claims?
Yes — more than 60 asbestos bankruptcy trusts hold combined funds set aside specifically for victims of asbestos-related disease. Trust-fund claims and civil lawsuits run on separate tracks; both can be pursued in parallel. Each trust has its own filing requirements, exposure criteria, and processing timeline.
Disclaimer: The information in this article is for general educational purposes only and does not constitute medical or legal advice. No attorney-client relationship is created by reading this site. References to companies, products, and facilities are drawn from public asbestos litigation records, court filings, and regulatory databases. Consult a licensed physician for medical guidance and a qualified attorney for legal advice regarding your specific situation.
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