The Long Beach Naval Shipyard used to be located in the vicinity of the LA international airport, halfway between the urbanizations of Long Beach and San Pedro. This was a perfect location: protected by the Long Beach port´s basin and just minutes away from the open seas. 

Since it started operations in 1940, the Long Beach shipyard started doing maintenance and repair work on cruisers and destroyers alike. When the Second World War ended,  demand dwindled, and there was a plan to lease the yard out to a company called Bethlehem Steel.  However, the Navy decided to turn the shipyard  into their own Dry Dock, renaming it Roosevelt Base. In 1948, the place came to be known as the Long Beach Naval Shipyard. While it was shortly inactive in 1950, the war in Korea created demand once more. After this workload surge, the facility would remain active, till it was shut down permanently in 1997.
 
Spanning over one hundred acres, the shipyard did extensive repairs on both nuclear and non-nuclear type vessels. At the peak of its production years, it employed close to seventeen thousand workers, between civilians and Navy personnel. 
 
When the US entered WWII, ships began to be in great demand. This brought on a spread of the use of a cheap and effective insulating material; namely, asbestos. Regrettably, asbestos was not only cheap; it was also deadly. In the 1970s, studies determined that exposure to asbestos causes mesothelioma, asbestos, and lung cancer; all deadly diseases. In fact, according to statistics, over 100,000 workers who were employed at shipyards during WWII have died as a result of their exposure to asbestos.  

If you have been at any point employed at  the Long Beach Naval Shipyard or any other similar shipyard,  you have a high chance of having been dangerously exposed to asbestos. If this is the case, the first thing you should do, after consulting a physician, is seek legal advice. The Weitz & Luxenberg Asbestos Lawyers are prepared to give you a complimentary case assessment, based on the firm´s twenty years of experience with asbestos claims.