[ajsnigrutin]

This works, if you have 20 coffee shops, and one of them has "there's asbestos in this building" warning.

If you have warnings literally everywhere, for minor things, that noone really cares about, because the risks are miniscule, people will start ignoring even the dangerous but identical-looking signs. "this item causes cancer" ... are we talking about asbestos, or are we talking about a roasted potato? If the labels are the same, people stop noticing them.

[njarboe]

I agree with your sentiment, but fear of asbestos is also another danger that has been highly exaggerated. Asbestos is only dangerous if it is particularized and inhaled in high quantities over a period of time. Men that changed breaks that had asbestos in them and thus lots of asbestos dust or men who worked on installing asbestos pipes and were cutting them all the time, were the ones who got cancer (or their wives who washed their dusty clothes). The fear of asbestos objects or buildings that have, say asbestos insulation on pipes in the basement, is not reasonable and another example of overblown fear that probably cost the US a hundreds of billions dollars (wild guess) that could have been spent much more productively on something else.

[mindslight]

Ultimately you're describing how asbestos is generally handled, apart from the rare exceptions of subsidies to preemptively replace it. But eventually, maintenance has to be performed on things made out of asbestos, which would then disperse it into the air and surrounding environment. So sure, asbestos is basically inert until it's disturbed, but once some part needs to be disturbed then it makes sense to do a full scale remediation rather than setting up expensive containment and only finishing part of the job.

[throwaway0a5e]

You're not wrong. When there's high dollar figured involved rationality tends to prevail over ideological screeching.

But what he described is exactly how asbestos is handled in discourse in any other context. People absolutely lose their minds over it.

[actually_a_dog]

I was going to suggest that asbestos was a bad example, because, in most cases, as long as it's left undisturbed, it's completely safe. The only risk from asbestos is from breathing it into one's lungs. If it's not in the air, it's not a problem.

But, then I thought: hmm... maybe his is a great example. People are terrible at assessing risks. The word 'asbestos' is likely to cause a greater reaction than is warranted. It's the opposite side of the coin from peoples' reactions to those prop 65 signs.

[LorenPechtel]

But note the very high cancer rates amongst those who were dealing with the twin towers rubble.