Today I Learned

Ha! My first thought too. Gotta Make America Cancer Again.

It's one of those materials that has an almost complete list of superb properties, with one overwhelming downside. It's cheap, abundantly available, completely fireproof and can be woven into fireproof cloth, adds enormous structural strength to concrete in small quantities, very resistant to a wide range of chemical attacks. It's just that the dust causes horrific cancers. See also CFCs, leaded petrol, etc, which have the same 'very cheap, superb in their intended use, but the negative outweighs all positives'.

One of the 'niche industrial applications' was the production of pump gaskets in high-temperature scenarios, especially when pumping corrosive liquids. We've a range of superalloys that are 'suitable' for these applications - something like inconel is an absolute bastard to form into shapes, but once you've done so it lasts a long time. But you still need something with similar properties when screwing the bits together. For a long time, there was no suitable synthetic replacement for asbestos in that kind of usage.

If you know that the asbestos is there, have suitable PPE and procedures, then IMHO it's far from the worst industrial material to work with. It's pretty inert, doesn't catch fire or explode, and isn't one of the many exciting chemicals where a single droplet on your skin would be sufficient to kill you. What is inappropriate is using it as a general-purpose building material, which is how it was used for so long, and where it was able to cause so much suffering for so many people.

We were using it in aftermarket brake pads too...

Allegedly, if there's asbestos in your workplace, it's better to leave it and not remove it. IE, in wall or ceiling paint

To prove it's safe, he will have... Don Jr do a line in a live conference.

I might be mistaken but wasn't the asbestos ban lifted by Trump in his first term and Biden just reinstalled the ban?

Not pettyness, his daddy putin is the biggest exporter.

Literally a joke from the Simpsons. Bart runs for class president and proclaims "We want more asbestos!"

Not for mass aviation, that's Kerosene (no, really, jet fuel is kerosene done to slightly fancier standards than your lantern fuel), which is unleaded fuel

Other guy explained avgas, which is leaded but not nearly as used as jet fuel

Avgas (100LL) isn't banned yet. What is banned, starting may 2025, is importing or mixing the lead additive (TEL) itself, so avgas cannot be produced in Europe.

This means that avgas will have to be imported from elsewhere, which should raise its price and provide an incentive to move away from using it.

This is a very soft handed approach, I'll just say I'm very glad I don't live close to an airfield...

Edit: jet fuel doesn't contain lead. Only piston engine aircraft use this fuel.

"The largest 26 of these trusts paid about 2.4 million claims totaling about $10.9 billion up to 2008."

Sounds like they were made to pay people. The companies are bankrupt...the trusts ensure funds are available to pay people despite the companies being insolvent.

And there are states that passed laws specifically to make it harder for people to sue at all (red states, obviously)

Reminds me of Kingdom of Loathing. They tried to make a joke out of getting materials from mines in the game that aren't mined, like linoleum (which is made from linseed oil). You go to a mine and get "linoleum ore" in the game. Or asbestos ore. Because they didn't know that asbestos is actually a mineral that is mined.

Asbestos abatement ain't cheap because there are specific ways it needs to be handled and disposed of.

If you don't live in a shithole state, at least.