Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton has operated along the Southern California coast since 1942, covering about 125,000 acres and ranking among the largest Marine Corps installations in the country. It functions as a major training base for ground, amphibious, and aviation operations.
Decades of military construction, maintenance, aviation activity, and firefighting operations have raised concerns about exposure to asbestos-containing materials and PFAS from firefighting foam, and the Navy continues to manage environmental investigations and cleanup projects at the base.
The Department of the Navy has identified Camp Pendleton as an installation where AFFF was historically used in firefighting operations. AFFF was a standard tool for aircraft firefighting, rescue operations, training exercises, fuel fire suppression, emergency drills, and fire suppression system testing. Older versions contained PFAS chemicals such as PFOS and PFOA, prized for their ability to snuff out petroleum-based fires, and made AFFF a popular choice for decades at installations such as Camp Pendleton.
Firefighters and emergency responders who handled or worked around this foam regularly had direct, repeated contact with it as part of their job duties, through skin contact, inhalation of fumes during use, and handling of equipment and gear saturated with the foam.
Because AFFF was used routinely in training exercises as well as real emergency responses, exposure was not limited to actual fires. Firefighters who participated in training drills involving foam, tested fire suppression systems, or worked in and around AFFF storage and discharge areas might have had exposures over their careers, even if they did not respond to a live fire.
Personnel who may have faced exposure at Camp Pendleton include:
- Marine Corps firefighters
- civilian firefighters employed on base
- aircraft rescue and firefighting (ARFF) personnel
- fire protection specialists
- fire department crew chiefs and captains
- firefighting instructors and trainees
- hazardous materials (HazMat) response personnel working alongside fire crews
Research has connected certain PFAS compounds found in AFFF to a higher risk of kidney cancer, testicular cancer, thyroid disease, ulcerative colitis, elevated cholesterol, liver effects, and immune system changes. Firefighters, given the frequency and directness of their contact with AFFF, are considered among those with the highest occupational exposure risk to these compounds.
Camp Pendleton went through rapid construction during World War II and kept expanding throughout the Cold War, a period when asbestos was widely used in military buildings for its fire resistance, durability, and insulating properties. Common asbestos-containing materials at the base included:
- pipe insulation
- boiler insulation
- steam system insulation
- vinyl floor tiles
- ceiling tiles
- roofing materials
- cement siding
- fireproof wallboard
- HVAC duct insulation
- mechanical equipment insulation
- gaskets and packing materials
Many of these materials have since been removed or managed through abatement programs, but renovation and demolition work can still disturb them and release asbestos fibers into the air. Personnel whose work involved older facilities generally faced the greatest exposure risk, including:
- Marine Corps engineers
- construction workers
- electricians
- plumbers and pipefitters
- boiler technicians
- HVAC mechanics
- welders
- maintenance personnel
- renovation crews
- civilian contractors
- public works employees
Marines and civilian personnel assigned to aging barracks, maintenance shops, warehouses, motor pools, aviation support buildings, and industrial facilities may also have encountered asbestos-containing materials during routine duties. Camp Pendleton contains documented asbestos, particularly in buildings constructed between 1942 and the 1980s, and Marines and base workers face potential exposure from deteriorating materials in older barracks, piping, and insulation, as well as during unmonitored construction or rehabilitation work. If asbestos exposure at Camp Pendleton led to a lung cancer or mesothelioma diagnosis, you may be eligible for compensation. Non-cancerous pleural conditions, including asbestosis, pulmonary fibrosis, pleural plaques, pleural effusion, and diffuse pleural thickening, are commonly misdiagnosed, so getting a second opinion is worth doing before ruling out a claim.