Metro Machine Shipyard was a full-service shipyard incorporated in 1963. Because asbestos is highly heat resistant and durable, it was used in a variety of components of shipbuilding. Shipbuilders employed asbestos to prevent fires and limit the amount of heat emitted by heavy machinery. As a result of this potential exposure, military and civilian personnel who worked at shipyards and aboard ships from the 1930s until the 1980s are at a higher risk of developing asbestos-related diseases such as lung cancer, mesothelioma, asbestosis, pleural plaques, diffuse pleural thickening, benign asbestos pleural effusions, and rounded atelectasis.