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gcanyon 3 hours ago

I wonder if there are studies on the lives saved by asbestos's fireproofing feature vs. cost by its lung-disease-causing feature.

Answering my own question: the WHO estimates it costs 200K lives per year. No estimates on the other side, but that's a big number to overcome...

https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/asbestos

bn-l an hour ago | parent [-]

I’m not sure if it’s still the case but I searched of alibaba once and found huge rolls of asbestos for sale and massive supply capacity numbers. It was pretty shocking.

ACCount37 an hour ago | parent [-]

It's still used in the industry. And it can be used safely, as long as you follow the precautions (handling, encapsulation) and mind the lifecycle. But China being China? Haha no.

some_random 7 minutes ago | parent [-]

It's also still used in building materials in developing countries, it's an incredible material that happens to give people cancer, mainly workers.