Terminal Damage.
When I was employed in the building industry, we were made very aware of the dangers of asbestos in buildings. Whenever it was discovered, it had to be removed by licenced contractors using specialist equipment. The alarming thing was that in its day it was hailed as a ‘wonder material’ and can be found in fireproofing, artex, fuse-boards, brake pads and even toilet cisterns. As I said it was hailed as a wonder material from its introduction in the 1870’s and with its dangers being noticed in the early 1900’s but only finally being banned in the UK in 1999. I have heard stories from people who were working on building sites in the 50’s and 60’s of it being sprayed onto steel beams without any protection for anyone on the site and it wasn’t uncommon to see workers throwing it at each other in snowball fights. All the time unaware to the danger of the tiny particles they were breathing in, slowly shredding the inside of their lungs, causing cancer and death by asbestosis many years lat...