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The awful thing is is that when this video was being made, the dangers of Asbestos were already known and had been established decades earlier. Some of the appl
by hyko 6y ago
The awful thing is is that when this video was being made, the dangers of Asbestos were already known and had been established decades earlier. Some of the applications don’t even make all that much sense, and are very much a case of trying to foist whatever you’re able to produce onto a gullible public.
Capital owners and governments could conceivably have used the substance in a responsible way without exposing workers and consumers to additional risk, but it would probably have lowered their appetite for spreading it all over the environment if they had borne the costs upfront.
Considering that they used to make vehicle brake linings out of the rotten stuff until the late 20th century, it’s clear that no such attempts were made. Even though the first documented death was in 1906.
- basicplus2 6y agoBang on. I have a set of 1927 Arthur Mee encyclopeadia and it lists every single Asbestos related disease in detail.
- ImprovedSilence 6y agoDo they not still make brake linings out of it? I thought that was still a use for it?
- hyko 6y agoOh my god – it turns out there never was an asbestos ban in the US...it was banned in the UK and 50 other countries in 1999 I think (although there was a dispensation until 2004 for repair of classic vehicles).
- MichaelZuo 6y agoYup, certain types of brake pads still use asbestos to this very day.
- colejohnson66 6y agoThe US never “needed” to ban it because consumer awareness of the downsides led to a de facto ban.
- emayljames 6y agoIt is also used as a purification filter, to this day, by consumer alcohol manufacturers. Although they don't like to talk about it.