Port Houston Iron Works was a small shipbuilding company that started its activity in the 1930s. The facility was on the south side of the turning basin at the head of the Houston Ship Channel. In 1962 it changed its name to Port Houston Shipyard and in 1967 became the Port Houston Division of Wyatt Industries. They built tugboats, barge boats, and landing crafts for the Navy. The shipyard closed in 1976. In all the shipbuilding companies of that time, the workers used asbestos in most of the construction processes, resulting in asbestos exposure on the job. The toxic mineral was everywhere on the shipbuilding site and the Navy ships; its particles filled their breathing air. Asbestos is responsible for many life-threatening lung diseases, such as lung cancer and mesothelioma.
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