Campaign to improve awareness of Navy lung disorder pays off

Posted 8:29PM on Saturday 2nd March 2002 ( 23 years ago )

ALBANY - Jerry Cochran gasps and tires easily, but he has shown amazing stamina in a 25-year quest to get the government to recognize a lung disease he and other sailors may have contracted on Navy ships. Cochran, a former deck grinder on the aircraft carrier USS Independence, claims thousands of Vietnam War veterans like himself inhaled toxic dust and may be suffocating from an incurable disease they don't know they have. ``The vets have a right to know they have dust-inhaled lung disease, and they need to be compensated just like someone who was shot in Vietnam,'' he said. ``We were shot with dust. We were serving our country, too, but we have been ignored.'' Cochran's relentless campaign finally paid dividends when Congress, in a 2001 defense bill, provided $500,000 for the Navy to conduct a lung disease study. Cochran is an adviser for the study. ``I'm not just a loose cannon,'' he said. ``I know how to lobby and get the things we need. I don't think they expected me to be able to do that.'' The Albany minister got more good news in January when he was selected to serve on the Department of Veterans Affairs' minority veterans committee. Cochran once may have been viewed as an annoyance by Washington bureaucrats, but he's now working with the VA and the Navy to resolve his concerns about the deckhand disease. ``We take him very seriously,'' said Charles Nesby, director of the VA's Center for Minority Affairs in Washington. ``We take the problem very seriously. He's a great American. He's not only complaining about the problem, he's endeavoring to do something about it.'' Nesby, a retired Naval aviator, said it took a number of years for officials to recognize that chipping paint and removing nonskid material from the decks was a health hazard. ``We now provide the protective gear for those who work with those things,'' Nesby said. ``This is in response to many of the problems Mr. Cochran brought to our attention.'' Capt. Gary Rudolph, director of preventive medicine and occupational health for the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, said the Navy ``has a strong desire to determine if there is a relationship between service aboard Navy ships and the diagnosis of ... lung diseases.'' He said the study is in progress and will include the analysis of medical and service information and tissue samples archived by the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology. Cochran believes he was made sick by inhaling silica particles in 1972 while he and other deckhands ground the nonskid material from the hangar deck of the Independence without a protective mask or respirator. At the end of each day, they were covered with dust and looked like coal miners, he said. Black sailors were assigned such ``menial'' duties more often than whites, putting them at greater risk for health problems, Cochran said. But the hazardous exposure was not limited to the deck grinders, he said. The ship's ventilation system carried the dust to all parts of the ship, exposing the entire crew, he said. The abrasive material, containing silica, aluminum and titanium particles, is applied to carrier decks to prevent airplanes from sliding into the ocean during landings. Crewmen still grind the material and apply fresh coats periodically, but they now wear masks and the dust is sucked into a container. ``We were serving our country,'' said Cochran, who speaks in a raspy voice and wears an oxygen mask when he sleeps. ``We were doing what we were told. It was up to the government to inform us of the hazards. When you send a soldier to Vietnam, you teach him how to protect himself to get in a foxhole. We were not trained to protect ourselves.'' Cochran said he began experiencing breathing problems aboard the carrier and wound up in a Naval hospital, where he was diagnosed with sarcoidosis, a disease that can produce nodules in the lungs and can cause breathing problems. Sarcoidosis has no known cause, but there is evidence it may result from the immune system's response to unidentified environmental agents. With treatment it usually disappears after a few years. Cochran said he was not satisfied and after 10 years persuaded a VA doctor to perform a biopsy which confirmed he had silicosis, caused by the inhalation of silica from sand and other rocks. Silicosis causes fibrous nodules to form in the lungs. Eventually, the lungs lose their elasticity and breathing becomes increasingly difficult. Silicosis falls into a class of diseases known as pneumoconiosis, which includes black lung, an affliction of coal miners who inhale smoke and coal dust; asbestosis, the inhalation of asbestos fibers; bagassosis, the inhalation of fungal spores from sugar cane; and byssinosis, an allergic reaction to breathing cotton dust. Cochran believes the government used sarcoidosis as a ``catchall'' diagnosis for sailors, but thousands may actually have the more serious pheumoconiosis. ``Many don't know they have dust-inhaled lung disease because they've been told they have sarcoidosis,'' he said. ``There is no cure for pneumoconiosis. They have been given a death sentence. The disease could have been prevented with proper training and equipment.'' A former high school football player, Cochran laments not being able to play ball with his three sons. ``Physically, it's difficult,'' he said. ``I feel like I'm 90. I'm on oxygen at night. If I'm not on oxygen, I could just stop breathing. But my mind is sharp. I'm a fighter for what's just and right, and it keeps me going.'' Cochran said his frustration with the Navy and with his lung disease led him into the ministry and prompted him to form the Jerry Cochran Veterans' Outreach Program, which is trying to inform others who might have deckhand's disease. His outreach is planning a Web site. ``I felt that because of my pain, what was therapeutic was helping others with their pain,'' he said. ``It's been a tremendous battle against insurmountable odds.''

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