Service, Advocacy & Results for Veterans

Asbestos Attorneys Passionate About Veteran Rights

Many military veterans have contracted mesothelioma from service-related exposures to asbestos. In fact, approximately one third of Americans diagnosed with mesothelioma were exposed in the military. Asbestos was used in a variety of capacities in the military, especially in the navy. If you served in the U.S. Navy prior to the mid-1970s, then you were likely exposed to asbestos while aboard a ship. The fiber was used in heating pipes, air vents, and insulation panels. It was in sleeping compartments, mess halls, passageways, gun mounts, boiler rooms, and more.

Mesothelioma Center of Excellence at the West Los Angeles VA Medical Center

In 2013, we launched a campaign urging our clients and their families to write their senators and congressmen to get the word out to VA doctors and vets about the Mesothelioma Center of Excellence at the West LA VA. What we found was that, while the VA hospital’s mesothelioma center had the potential to help veterans with mesothelioma cancer, many people had no idea it existed. The result was a lack of funding, clinical trials, research, and physician referrals.

The family of Navy Admiral Elmo Zumwalt, who died of mesothelioma in 2000, has agreed to lend their name to the expanded program. The new center would be called the “Elmo Zumwalt Mesothelioma Treatment & Research Center.” Other families have pledged financial support to kick-start the program, including a pledge of $500,000 from the family of John Johnson, a Marine infantryman who lost his battle with mesothelioma in 2012. We petitioned for funding to expand the so that it would have the capacity to treat greater numbers of vets and conduct research and clinical trials that will benefit all patients, vets and non-vets.

Opposition to the FAIR Act

The Federal Activities Inventory Reform Act was vehemently opposed by Admiral Zumwalt’s son and many other victims of military-related asbestos cancer. The FAIR Act aimed to cap asbestos litigation at $1,100,000 per settlement. Mesothelioma treatment easily surpasses this limit, often within the first few months of treatment. Zumwalt’s son and others, including our attorneys, argue that asbestos cancer is clearly service connected, necessitating that the Department of Defense and Department of Veterans Affairs create a mesothelioma treatment program for veterans.

Opposition to the Asbestos Bailout Bill

Worthington & Caron, PC opposed the asbestos bailout bill that aimed to terminate the legal rights of all current and future asbestos victims and force them into an untested national trust fund bureaucracy that would be under-funded by at least $40 billion. The bill would delay financial relief to veterans and other asbestos victims by up to nine years - time many dying asbestos victims just don't have.

Under the proposed bill, many veterans with asbestos-related diseases will not qualify for any compensation at all. With the exception of mesothelioma victims, very few veterans are likely to meet the five and ten year cumulative exposure requirements under the bill because they will not have been in the service long enough to qualify. The bill proposed to bail out the very asbestos and insurance companies that knowingly exposed veterans to asbestos.

Serving Those Who Served Our Country

Military veterans should be honored for their heroic service, not punished by capping their recovery and thereby limiting the medical treatment they badly need. It is a shame that our country does not step up as it should to help asbestos-exposed veterans who are fighting for their lives because of lies perpetuated by Navy material and equipment suppliers. While these parties knew the health risks associated with asbestos, they continued to use it anyway – never warning the Navy or its sailors about the risks of inhaling asbestos fibers.