Final destination for the USS Saipan amphibious assault ship has been established to be in Brownsville, Texas. Workers from International Shipbreaking Ltd. will be the responsible of the scrap operation for this ship that has serve the country many years.

The USS Saipan

The USS Saipan was part of the U.S Navy. She was decommissioned and struck in 2007, from the Naval Vessel Register after 30 years of serving the country.
Until October 2008, Saipan was berthed at the reserve shipyard in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
International Shipbreaking said that this will be the first largest 28,000 tones ship ever scrapped by the company.
They also said that it will be great operations and workers are fully prepared to scrap the ship as soon as possible. High conditions of safety were developed for this great operation.
USS Saipan will be the first of the Tarawa class first big deck to be scrapped.

Removing asbestos

International Shipbreaking worker will first remove all asbestos materials from the ship and after will continue scraping the ship in small but they will also save some parts of the ship that will be use for other ships.
Is well known that asbestos products and materials were widely used in manufacturing the vessels of the U.S Navy ships. They used those materials and products because of their specific properties, not knowing at that time that asbestos exposure can lead to mesothelioma cancer.
Other ships, veteran ships, part of the U.S Navy, will be also verified, and if containing asbestos, measures will be taken.
Asbestos is the main cause for developing mesothelioma cancer. Mesothelioma or asbestosis can be fatal if not treated in time. It is very hard to diagnose this type of cancer because symptoms can appear even after 40 years of exposure.
People who have had contact with exposure present a higher risk to develop mesothelioma.