Coast Guard veterans & mesothelioma

Coast Guard veterans aboard cutters and at shipyards faced asbestos exposure profiles similar to U.S. Navy peers. If you served in the U.S. Coast Guard and were diagnosed with mesothelioma or another asbestos-related cancer, you may be entitled to compensation from asbestos lawsuits and asbestos trust funds. This is separate from VA disability — most veterans pursue all three at once.

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By submitting, you agree to be contacted about asbestos lawsuit and trust fund claims. Confidential. No upfront cost. This intake does not handle VA disability claims — for VA disability, see vva.org or dav.org.

How Coast Guard veterans were exposed to asbestos

Coast Guard cutters and small craft built before the late 1980s used asbestos in boiler insulation, steam-line lagging, gaskets, valve packing, brake linings, and fireproofing — the same products in the same locations as Navy ships of the period. Coast Guard shipyards in Curtis Bay (MD), Alameda (CA), and elsewhere handled asbestos abatement, repair, and renovation work that exposed shipyard workers to airborne fibers. Older shore stations, lighthouses, and lifeboat stations also had asbestos-containing building materials.

Roles with the heaviest asbestos exposure

Damage Controlman (DC)
Machinery Technician (MK)
Electrician's Mate (EM)
Boatswain's Mate (BM)
Fireman (FN)
Coast Guard shipyard worker

Where exposure was most common

USCG Yard Curtis Bay, MD
Coast Guard Island Alameda, CA
CGC Eagle (training vessel)
378-foot Hamilton-class cutters
270-foot Famous-class cutters
110-foot Island-class patrol boats

Era of service

Asbestos use was heaviest in the WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Cold War eras. Mesothelioma typically appears 20–50 years after exposure, which means veterans diagnosed today were often exposed during these decades.

Three compensation streams — not just one

Most eligible veterans pursue all three at the same time:

Asbestos tort lawsuits against the private companies that made the asbestos-containing products used in the military.
Asbestos bankruptcy trust fund claims against the trusts those companies left behind. Many veterans qualify for 5–8 trusts at once.
VA disability benefits (handled separately through a VA-accredited representative — not through this site).

The three streams do not conflict. See how lawsuits and VA disability stack →