Electricians/ Electrician's Mates & Asbestos Exposure

When they drilled through asbestos-contaminated materials, dust would spread into the air and the asbestos fibers would become airborne and dangerous to anyone who unknowingly inhaled them.

Electricians who were not working directly with asbestos were quite often in the vicinity of other construction workers including carpenters and plumbers that also handled asbestos-containing materials.

In the military, electricians were in charge of maintaining and repairing electrical equipment, working with diagrams, blueprints, and specifications, installing the conduit, switches, cables, lighting fixtures, outlets, and service panels necessary for bringing electricity in the buildings or other structures and designing electrical layouts. They would also be responsible for installing any special equipment which had to be hard-wired into the electrical system, testing circuits to ensure they were working correctly and identifying any problem regarding the electrical equipment they were supervising.

Responsible with installing, operating, adjusting, maintaining, inspecting, testing, and repairing electrical equipment, electrician’s mates would frequently handle asbestos products. For this reason, they are susceptible to receiving a terrible diagnosis, even though their asbestos exposure was moderate. Additionally, electrician’s mates would also have to maintain operating efficiency of distribution panels, switches, switchboards, controllers, voltage regulators, current transformers, and electric motors.

Other duties included repairing electrical equipment and appliances, maintaining and repairing shipboard elevator systems, propulsion controls, and auxiliary control systems, installing and maintaining storage batteries, connecting electric power machinery and electric power equipment, and inspecting electric power equipment. The majority of their work would be performed indoors, which only increased their asbestos exposure, as electrician’s mates would be surrounded by numerous asbestos products on ships and aircraft.

In charge of performing and supervising the preventive and corrective maintenance, calibration, configuration, and alignment of cryptographic, radar and navigation, electronics technicians had similar duties as electrician's mates in the U.S. Navy. They were also exposed to asbestos in the military, although to a moderate extent. As a result, they are now at risk of developing terrible diseases. Following inhalation or ingestion, asbestos fibers remain in the body forever, endangering your health, as they may lead to a serious disease over time, such as lung cancer or mesothelioma.

Another military rating similar to electrician's mate is aviation electrician's mate. The duties of aviation electrician’s mates focus mainly on maintaining electrical and instrument systems, such as power generation, conversion, and distribution systems, aircraft batteries, electrical control of aircraft systems, automatic flight control, aircraft compass systems, attitude reference systems, and inertial navigation systems. Asbestos exposure was moderate in this military occupational rating. Nevertheless, they are still at considerable risk of developing serious diseases.

Finally, electronics technicians also share a significant number of duties with electrician's mates. Responsible for performing and supervising the preventive and corrective maintenance, calibration, configuration, and alignment of cryptographic, radar, and navigation, electronics technicians were also exposed to asbestos in the military, although to a moderate extent. As a result, they are now at risk of developing terrible diseases. Following inhalation or ingestion, asbestos fibers remain in the body forever, endangering your health, as they may lead to a serious disease over time, such as lung cancer or mesothelioma.