Asbestos exposure isn’t limited to land. Starting in the early part of the 1900’s the Navy filled their ships with asbestos and now many veterans suffer the consequences of their constant exposure (https://www.asbestos.com/navy/). The asbestos was used all over the vessels as insulation and because of its heat resistance properties (https://www.marineinsight.com/marine-safety/asbestos-on-ships-is-the-toxic-still-in-use/). Asbestos.com provides an excellent graphic showing which areas of the ships contained asbestos, https://www.asbestos.com/navy/.
Cruise ships also contained asbestos, check out this article about an employee who developed lung cancer after working for 15 years in the mechanical rooms of Carnival cruise ships https://www.marineinsight.com/marine-safety/asbestos-on-ships-is-the-toxic-still-in-use/. Even today cruise ships may have asbestos on board, but not in areas where guests would be.
Current regulations on asbestos vary by the age of the ship. Ships built after 2002 have a 3 year window to remove asbestos if a survey shows the vessel contains asbestos (https://www.marinelink.com/news/maritimes-asbestos433115). Ships built before 2002 can have asbestos on board as long as they keep a hazardous material’s register and have a management plan.
All new and existing ships must have an asbestos survey and though they must remove any high risk asbestos they can contain low risk asbestos, assuming it’s contained, replaced and monitored as regulations mandate (https://www.marinelink.com/news/maritimes-asbestos433115). Here is a link to a list of allowable uses of asbestos on ships, https://www.marineinsight.com/marine-safety/asbestos-on-ships-is-the-toxic-still-in-use/.
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