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So listen in wherever you're at to veteransradio
.org and its podcasts. We want to welcome to
Veterans Radio today, Christina Johnson. She
is a veteran advocate with an organization called
Asbestos Ships, which is a non -profit that I
bumped into and I thought, oh, this is interesting.
I don't think we've talked about this on Veterans
Radio in a long time, at least. Christina, welcome
to Veterans Radio. Thank you, Jim. Thank you
for having me here today. I'd like to discuss
the important work that we do and particularly
for our older veterans who need that extra support.
Absolutely. And this arises out of the fact that
asbestos was used as sort of a You know product
almost a miracle product to reduce fires on ships
in particular But all through the country asbestos
was used into the through the 70s Tell us a little
bit about that History in terms of ships and
it wouldn't just be Navy. It would be Coast Guard
And any other ships that the government was involved
in but tell us a little bit about how asbestos
was used Absolutely. So from 1930s to the early
1980s, asbestos was everywhere on US Navy ships,
submarines, shipyards, and also military bases.
So it was in over 300 different products, installation,
pipes, boilers, you name it. The problem was
that nobody back then fully understood the health
risks, so safety measures like protective masks
or wetting down materials were not enforced.
Veterans, especially those with hands -on roles
like shipyards workers, insulators, or CBs doing
construction, were exposed on a daily basis to
asbestos dust, often in cramped or poorly ventilated
spaces. Many didn't even realize they were breathing
in these harmful fibers. Yeah, that's really
the, you know, back then, both because maybe
science wasn't as far along, medicine wasn't
as far along, and quite frankly, we as veterans
probably didn't pay attention to any instructions
we got anyway, but it really had long -term effects
on veterans working in those areas where asbestos
fibers got airborne, because as I understand
it right, it gets trapped in your lungs. Right,
yes. It can lead to serious health issues and
unfortunately it takes decades for all of the
symptoms to show up. When you say serious health
issues, could you elaborate what kind of health
issues if somebody was exposed to it might they
end up with? Right. We're talking about non -cancerous
conditions like pulmonary fibrosis, asbestosis,
chronic bronchitis, COPD, pleuroplex, pleural
thickening, and many others. These diseases can
make breeding difficult and severely impact the
quality of life of our veterans. And really,
my doctor might not even think to ask me that
question, I suppose, if he didn't know. Hey,
yeah, I was a mill writer. I was this or that
on ship. I was in fire damage control. I mean,
I guess you got to know what questions to ask
or what information to give if you've got one
of these non -cancerous diseases. Exactly. And
that's what we do with asbestos ships. As soon
as we call our veterans, we walk them through
a process where we tell them what kind of questions,
what should they, what kind of tests they should
ask their doctors in order to get properly diagnosed
and then also try and help their VA claims and
their other types of claims that they can be
eligible for. Now, neither you or I are medical
folks, but you've got deeper understanding of
this whole field than I do. Is there a way to
test to say, yeah, I kind of think I was on a
ship doing X, Y, or Z. Is there a way to test
if I've got asbestos in my airways? The best
way to test for that is by going to bee readers,
but there's only a few in US that actually do
these types of tests and a regular chest x -ray
would be enough. to see and then a breeding test
and they do various different tests right now,
but I do recommend, I mean, I do tell veterans
that you do need to go get a chest x -ray and
you need to ask these 10 questions. I was also
surprised in reading some of the materials that
you have on asbestos ships that exposure to asbestos
could develop cancers that extend beyond the
lungs. Oh, yes. So what happens, these fibers
can, they get inhaled and then they get ingested
and they can travel through your body and they
will attack your weakest organs. So if you're
predisposed to, or your immune system is weaker
and let's say, you know, like in other, with
with other organs then you will get brain cancer
you will get prostate cancer and we know this
for sure because upon biopsies they do find fibers
and liver you know prostate colon and other organs
as well yeah as i said i i kind of was thinking
well this is a lung pulmonary problem was kind
of surprised to learn it could be a lot Can have
impacted a lot more in your body organs in your
body than than just the lungs Yeah, many veterans
don't really know that and the most important
part is like many veterans don't really go to
the doctor early enough So an early diagnosis
is crucial and that's what we try to create awareness
for So you have a website the organization's
website is asbestos -ships .com which has all
kinds of information on it, but I noticed when
I'm on it, I actually get a chat bot with your
face and says, hey, I'm Christina, can I help
you? What are common questions that you get from
veterans or friends of veterans who are kind
of just trying to get some information and understand
this process? Most of the veterans, we get about
50 to 100 calls a day. It's insane how many calls
we get. I mean I can't even answer all of them
in time and oftentimes I work as much as I can
so I can call them back and educate them mostly.
The early diagnosis and diagnosis questions like
that most of the times Some of them, it's too
late. They already have cancers. They have the
cancer diagnosis, and they need help with their
VA claims. And that's very unfortunate. But some
of them just have the symptoms. And the symptoms
can take three to four years to develop into
something more serious like cancer. So they can.
actually manage those symptoms if they would
just get diagnosed and they would just get educated
about their quality. Where am I right now in
the process? Because the fibers are non -removable.
They live in your lungs and they're going to
stay there. So it's something that they have
to learn to manage. And if they are more educated
about the early diagnosis, then it's absolutely
vital for veterans. And I can highlight a couple
of reasons of why this group actually deserves
special attention. Absolutely. Please do. And
I think that weaves into one of the things you
guys work on, which is sort of the whole policy,
trying to get policymakers, VA leaders to understand
this. But go ahead and explain it to us. Yes.
So first of all, veterans, they face unique health
risks tied to their service. Many of them were
exposed to environmental hazards like Agent Orange,
burn pits, radiation during their deployments,
significantly increasing their risk of developing
cancers such as lung, prostate, leukemia, and
many other types of cancers. Unfortunately, a
lot of these cancers develop often silently with
no symptoms in the early stages. So catching
them early through regular screenings can mean
the difference between a treatable condition
and one that's advanced and far and harder to
manage. So the second one is veterans often deal
with complex health challenges, including higher
rates of chronic conditions like PTSD, physical
injury, which can mask or delay cancer symptoms
as well. An early diagnosis ensures that cancer
isn't overlooked and allowing for timely intervention.
So for example, I've been just reading about
something about the VA's own data that shows
that veterans diagnosed with stage one lung cancer
have a five -year survival rate of around 60
to 70 percent compared to just 10 to 10 percent
for stage four. Oh yeah. So you know those numbers
speak for themselves and early detection does
save lives. One of the things that I thought
was also very interesting on your website which
is asbestoships .com are the blogs that you have
talking about different issues and maybe it's
once or twice a month you put a blog out the
October one was radar technicians and exposure
asbestos exposure but another one was a month
earlier was testicular cancer as a presumptive
condition under the PACDAC. So there's a lot,
it seems like you're trying to put out good information
every month that maybe the veteran who's looking
for some answers might find some here. Are you
the writer of these blogs or how do you pick
your topics? Yes, I do everything myself and
by interviewing and talking to the veterans,
I document everything that is of their interest
and they want to find, you know, answers to or
they want to find out how the process is like
or what it looks like. So I try to be transparent
with that information based on, you know, the
interviews and based on my conversations that
I have with them. Yeah, I sort of had a feeling
this is one of those things where you go like,
I've had a lot of these questions this month,
I'm going to go try to try to put something out
there for people. Yeah and not all of them are
you know educated or like they they know enough
about the PACT Act but some of the veterans like
read a lot and they amazed me with their questions
they they make it hard for me sometimes so I
love that I love that they're curious and they're
they're they're just well researched and I want
you know to make sure that all veterans do that
for themselves and I know You also have a function
on searching for ships. Tell me about that a
little bit. Yes, so not all of the ships or at
least some of the older ships in particular,
sometimes they don't have enough crew members
that are still alive. veterans will call me,
and they just want to connect with a shipmate.
And we help them with that. And we find out who
is still alive. If we have a phone number for
that shipmate, sometimes they submit their pictures,
they submit their data, they submit their information.
So we connect veterans with former Shipmates?
Yeah, shipmates, sorry. I was like, I was laughing.
And you also linked to the various ship building
yards or shipyards that these American ships
were built out of because so many, you know,
ships got, if you were in the Navy or in the
Coast Guard, sooner or later, you're probably
on a detail that's taking the ship back into
the dry dock. for repair work or maintenance
or upgrades. So that's also a very interesting
feature of your website. I suspect that gets
a lot of play as well. Yes, so the ships, while
the ships are very important, some of the ships
have a lot of veterans that call me from them
and some have less, but with the shipyards is
particularly interesting the fact that they were
working all day long in the shipyards and they
would go home, they would carry all the, not
just the asbestos fibers, all the toxins on their
clothes and then their wives and children would
breathe them in and eventually. years and years
later, they get sick from the same exact illnesses
that the veterans are sick of. When you and I
were talking about setting this interview up,
one of the things you said to me was that the
call center is really the heart of what you do
at asbestoships .com. Tell me what you meant
by that. Yes, I would like to spotlight our call
center. It truly reflects the heart of our organization.
We are a small team, more like a family, and
we pour our heart into every interaction that
we have with our veterans. We have a high volume
of calls. We can't answer every single call immediately,
but we take messages and we follow up diligently.
We call back as many times as it takes. I love
talking to these veterans on the phone and I
can tell that some of them enjoy doing that.
Well, this clearly has to be a passion project,
which most small nonprofits really are. But do
you have partners or sponsors who've been helping
you in this passion project? We have had a couple
of sponsors, but they're very small. I do this
out of my own. With my this is what I like to
do with my own time Honestly, and I'm fortunate
enough to be able to do it and to be able to
help veterans who may be sick elder or alone
navigating the VA programs and the claims and
And I I hope I can support them as they deserve
well, it does become very confusing and and because
asbestos exposure as you mentioned is sort of
generally just one of the things you got exposed
to is along with all kinds of other toxins, you
find that these older veterans have multiple
health problems and sorting out what is tied
to what and is their service connected and is
there a medical nexus. It gets pretty confusing,
I think for the veterans, I suspect that's what
you hear in the phone calls. Yes, it is incredibly
challenging. you know some of these veterans
at one point they do need extra help so like
we help them with the VA claim that they already
they they already are processing or sometimes
their VA claims get denied and then we help them
with that but sometimes I do need to refer them
and I tell them like hey you can actually get
as best as trust funds on top of your VA claim
and then we have to refer them out to a law firm
because then They're the only ones that do that.
However, I only refer them to law firms that
I know that six months later when I call them
back, they tell me, yes, I have been helped.
And yes, I was able to be compensated. So we
research on our end that as well. And I base
everything. on the fact that we call them back
and there is a result and there is like, you
know, a lot of veterans tell me like, yes, I'm
getting my claim and this is the process and
I'm learning on how they're doing that as well
and I'm posting as much as I can about that.
Well, the website, as I said, is pretty robust.
You can find out about your ship. You can find
about the shipyards maybe that you went into
or the ship went into. There's blogs set up for
different types of information. How long has
the organization been at this? I've been doing
this for about 20 years now, since 2005. How
that happened, huh? Well, I have lost somebody
that has worked on one of these shifts as well.
And that made me curious and made me research
more information. And then I was just a wealth
of knowledge. And I wanted to have all of this
information and continue to help others. Is there
a phone number that if people have questions
about uh maybe their medical condition and it's
linked to their exposure to possible asbestos
in the navy or the coast guard or i suppose uh
there's other exposures but i'm thinking ships
primarily here uh that they should call yeah
we uh um our phone number is seven six zero six
two one six one four seven And I want to tell
you also about the partnership. You actually
asked me about partnerships and all of that.
So sometimes we get listed in a lot of the VA
offices, like the VA offices endorse us and recommend
to veterans that they give us a call so that
they get more help. And then we have a couple
of other medical offices as well that we help
with, particularly like VA centers and oncology
treatment centers. So that's... Well, it's certainly
a confusing area for, I think, a veteran who
has such an exposure and 30, 40, 50 years later
has a possible disease path. So finding information
Finding a resource that'll provide you some more
information is always useful, which is why we
wanted to bring Christina Johnson from asbestos
-ships .com to our veteran radio listeners. Christina,
you're doing great work. Hopefully, we won't
add too many more calls to the 50 to 100 that
you get a day, but why don't you give out that
phone number one more time? Yes, of course. Our
phone number is 760. 621 -6147. Thank you, Jim,
for having me. Well, we're really glad that you
took some time this afternoon to talk to veteran
radio listeners about the long hidden issue associated
with this asbestos exposure, all these kind of
things that show up decades later. Christina,
we really appreciate your time today. It's been
my honor. Thank you so much. And I want to thank
everybody for listening to Veterans Radio today.
I am Jim Fossone. It's been a pleasure to be
your host. I'm a veterans disability lawyer at
Legal Help for Veterans and you can reach us
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