In the military, electricians maintained and repaired electrical equipment, installed conduit, switches, cables, lighting fixtures, and service panels, and designed electrical layouts for buildings and other structures. Electrician's mates handled similar duties aboard ship, including maintaining distribution panels, switchboards, voltage regulators, and electric motors, as well as repairing shipboard elevator systems, propulsion controls, and storage batteries.
Their work also extended to the ship's firefighting infrastructure itself, and electrician's mates were often responsible for the electrical controls tied to fixed AFFF systems, along with standing assigned firefighting and damage control watches during general quarters.
Electronics technicians and aviation electrician's mates shared many of the same duties and faced similar exposure to both asbestos and AFFF in the military, given their overlapping work in engineering spaces and near shipboard firefighting equipment. Because asbestos fibers remain in the body indefinitely once inhaled or ingested, and PFAS compounds in AFFF accumulate in the bloodstream over time, all of these ratings remain at risk of developing serious diseases tied to either exposure.
Relevant job titles
- cable worker
- cable splicer
- electrical foreman
- electrical technician
- industrial electrician
- craftsman
- electrician helper
- rig electrician
- utility electrician
- aviation electronic technician
- electrical engineering technician
- aviation electrician's mate
- electronics technician
- electrical system specialist
- line worker
- wireman
AFFF exposure for electricians/ electrician's mates
Electrical systems and firefighting systems aboard Navy ships were closely linked, since foam pumps, discharge valves, and suppression system controls all depended on wiring and circuitry that fell under an electrician's or electrician's mate's responsibility. Maintaining these systems meant working directly on or near equipment that stored and distributed AFFF, even without responding to an actual fire. Electricians and electrician's mates may have encountered AFFF through duties that included:
- inspecting and repairing the electrical controls for fixed foam suppression systems
- troubleshooting wiring faults in AFFF pump rooms and discharge stations
- standing assigned firefighting or damage control watches during general quarters like every other rated sailor aboard ship
- working in engineering spaces or near hangar bays on aviation support ships, where foam systems required frequent electrical maintenance and testing
Veterans in these roles who were later diagnosed with kidney cancer or testicular cancer may be eligible to file a claim.
Asbestos-related cancer eligible for filing a claim
If you developed one of the following cancers as a result of occupational exposure, you are eligible for compensation. If you are too ill, a family member can help you with the legal process. In the unfortunate event that you pass away before recovering compensation, your surviving family members will receive compensation on your behalf.
If, however, you struggle with non-cancerous pleural diseases such as asbestosis, pulmonary fibrosis, pleural plaques, pleural effusion, diffuse pleural thickening, COPD (emphysema & chronic bronchitis), pleurisy, lung nodules, lung spots, asthma, pneumonitis, tuberculosis, rounded atelectasis or lung scarring, please seek a second or even a third opinion as the rate of misdiagnosis is very high among the victims of asbestos exposure.
Companies that exposed electricians/ electrician's mates to asbestos
- Dresser Industries
- General Electric Company
- Bartells Asbestos
- Christy Refractories
- Southern Company Services
- Sunbeam Products/Sunbeam Corporation Limited
- Norfolk Southern Railway
- Campbell Soup Co.
- Sun Oil Co.
- Pan American World Airways Inc.
- Occidental Chemical Corporation
- Anaconda Wire and Cable Company
- Tennessee Valley Authority
- Caterpillar Inc.
- American Crane Corporation
- Leviton Manufacturing Co. Inc.
- Potlatch Paper Mill
- Weirton Steel
- U.S. Steel
Labor union members are also eligible
Asbestos products handled by electricians/ electrician's mates
Electricians have been exposed to asbestos on the job up until the early 1980s when stricter safety regulations came into effect. There are multiple ways in which asbestos exposure could have occurred. By removing, cutting or drilling through asbestos-containing building materials - such as wallboards and tiles - to install or re-route wiring in a house, toxic fibers would be released into the air. Insulation film and paper, as well as wiring insulation, were also products commonly used by electricians, all of which were manufactured with asbestos. Moreover, asbestos was present in products such as electric boards, too, which electricians would often have to repair.