Shipyards and Bases: Florida Asbestos Exposure in Jacksonville, Tampa, and Beyond

Florida’s position as the state with the second-highest total mesothelioma cases in the country traces to two overlapping forces: a coastline lined with naval shipyards and ship repair facilities, and a network of military installations that stretched from Pensacola to Key West.

The workers who built the ships, maintained the aircraft, and kept the bases running are the ones receiving diagnoses now, decades after their last exposure. Their work was not incidental to asbestos. It was surrounded by it.

Jacksonville: Shipyards and Naval Operations

Jacksonville’s position on the St. Johns River and its proximity to the Atlantic made it a center for naval operations and commercial shipping throughout the 20th century. The city’s shipyard operations, including facilities supporting Naval Station Mayport, employed thousands of workers in environments saturated with asbestos.

Building and repairing naval vessels required asbestos at every stage. Pipe insulation, boiler lagging, fireproofing, gaskets, electrical insulation, and deck covering all contained asbestos, and workers in enclosed below-deck compartments breathed fiber-laden air throughout their shifts. The same conditions existed at East Coast shipyards from the Philadelphia Navy Yard to Savannah’s shipbuilding operations, where identical asbestos products from the same manufacturers were standard. Every steam pipe, hot water line, and process pipe on a naval vessel was insulated with asbestos-containing material, and pipefitters who cut, fit, and replaced that insulation had direct, daily contact with fibers. The most concentrated exposure occurred in boiler rooms and engine spaces, where asbestos insulation covered virtually every surface and workers stripped and reapplied insulation as part of routine maintenance. Jacksonville’s commercial port facilities also exposed longshoremen and dock workers to asbestos during cargo handling, warehouse operations, and ship maintenance.

Pensacola Naval Air Station

Pensacola NAS, established in 1914, is one of the oldest naval air stations in the country. The base’s hangars, maintenance facilities, barracks, and power systems used asbestos throughout their construction and ongoing maintenance.

Aircraft maintenance workers were exposed to asbestos in brake pads, gaskets, heat shields, and insulation used in both aircraft and ground support equipment. The base’s infrastructure, including steam distribution systems, electrical conduits, and building insulation, contained asbestos in materials installed from the 1930s through the 1970s.

Civilian workers at Pensacola NAS faced the same exposure as military personnel. Maintenance crews, electricians, plumbers, and construction workers who kept the base operational handled asbestos-containing materials as part of their daily work. For a breakdown of how mesothelioma risk varies by military branch, including the Navy’s disproportionately high exposure rates, see our veterans analysis.

Patrick Air Force Base

Patrick AFB (now Patrick Space Force Base) on Florida’s east coast served as the launch support facility for Cape Canaveral operations. The base’s infrastructure, including power systems, communications facilities, and support buildings, used asbestos insulation and fireproofing throughout the Cold War era.

Workers who built and maintained the base’s facilities were exposed to asbestos in pipe insulation, floor tiles, ceiling materials, roofing products, and electrical components.

Tampa and the Gulf Coast

Tampa’s ship repair industry operated alongside the city’s commercial port, creating a separate corridor of asbestos exposure on Florida’s Gulf Coast. Ship repair workers faced the same concentrated exposure as their counterparts in Jacksonville, with asbestos present in insulation, pipe covering, and fireproofing throughout the vessels they serviced.

The Gulf Coast’s power generation infrastructure added another layer. Coal-fired and oil-fired plants in the Tampa Bay area used asbestos insulation on boilers, turbines, and steam distribution systems. Boilermakers, pipefitters, and insulators who built and maintained these plants were exposed throughout their careers.

Tampa’s phosphate processing industry, centered in Hillsborough and Polk counties, also used asbestos in processing equipment, insulation, and facility infrastructure. Workers in the phosphate industry face an overlapping set of occupational health risks that compounds the asbestos exposure history.

Construction Across the State

Florida’s population boom from the 1950s onward created a construction industry that employed hundreds of thousands of tradespeople. Asbestos was a standard building material through the early 1980s, present in:

• Drywall joint compound applied by finishers on nearly every commercial and residential project
• Floor tiles and mastic installed in offices, schools, hospitals, and homes
• Roofing materials on commercial and industrial buildings
• Insulation in walls, attics, and mechanical systems
• Fireproofing sprayed on structural steel in high-rise buildings

Construction workers who cut, sanded, drilled, and installed these materials released asbestos fibers into the air on every job site.

Take-Home Exposure

Like workers in other industrial states, Florida’s shipyard workers, military base personnel, and construction tradespeople carried asbestos fibers home on their clothing. Spouses who laundered work clothes and children who greeted their parents at the door were exposed to the same material that was accumulating in workers’ lungs.

Florida courts have recognized take-home exposure claims. The state’s $18 million secondhand brake dust verdict demonstrated that family members can hold manufacturers accountable for exposure that occurred outside the workplace. The Virginia Supreme Court’s 2026 ruling that shipyard employers owed a duty of care to workers’ household members further strengthened the legal framework for these claims.