That's a bit of a different thing. In that case, the problem was not a lack of understanding of how asbestos works (it's not like people got sick from excessive

That's a bit of a different thing. In that case, the problem was not a lack of understanding of how asbestos works (it's not like people got sick from excessive fire resistance). We just didn't consider that particles would be inhaled, and what would happen when they were. The asbestos sort of danger is much more insidious and omnipresent. You have to not only know that your use is safe, but consider everything that could happen to it on the molecular level and that all the consequences of all those things are safe.