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General Science / Re: In controlled demolitions, what procedures are applied to prevent air toxicity?
« on: 05/03/2023 13:35:40 »Armley asbestos disaster is one of Britain's biggest industrial accidents with ~300 dead, and counting, but it's little known. From 1874 to 1959 the Roberts factory was spreading asbestos all over Armley, kids used to have snowball fights with the dust, and about 1000 homes were tested and found to be contaminated, but weren't made safe until 2008. The story was exposed by the Yorkshire Post in the 1970s when the mesothelioma incidence started rising, and Armley now has the highest rate in the country.Quote from: bored chemistit's not realistic to ascribe subsequent deaths to that particular incident.Nor should they deny that all subsequent deaths were unrelated to exposure at work.
It is difficult for the legal system to deal with cases where there may have been an increased risk of some adverse event from an alleged cause, but also the possibility that it may have been unrelated to the alleged cause.
- The only options seem to be that it was or was not related to the alleged cause.
- This is especially difficult in the very litigious USA
- Penalties/compensation seems to be quite random (from a distance)
In Australia, it is accepted that if you worked in an asbestos mine or an asbestos factory and later develop mesothelioma , that your condition is work-related. But life expectancy after diagnosis is around 9 months, and it takes a similar time for the compensation scheme to swing into action.
My parents lived just down the road when they were first married, if I'd been born 10 years earlier I could have been one of the kids throwing snowballs.