Sort of OT: Old Asbestos Applications

[Man at B&Q]

Exactly!

MBQ

[Lobster]

As one does... ;-)

David

[Owain]

And as it's so hard to get nowadays it would be irresponsible to squander it on just any job. Best save it until it's really required.

Owain

[Clot]

[geraldthehamster]

They'll discover something nasty about polyeurethane, and all the Kingspan will have to come out...

Cheers Richard

[The Natural Philosopher]

Its polyisocyanurate actually. Not polyurethane.

[JimK]

er...is it?

"Welcome to the divisional homepage of Kingspan Insulation. The world's leading manufacturer of CFC/HCFC-free rigid phenolic and CFC/HCFC-free rigid urethane insulation."

didn't isocyanurate get superceded a while back?

JimK

[Bruce]

Returning to the question of what products will amaze our grandchildren in 50 years' time on the basis of the health hazards they involve ...

Solvent based paints and coatings?

Just as we are now aware of the dangers of the lead based paints of a few decades ago, our grandchildren will not believe that we allowed solvent based paints and coatings to be used without protective clothing and breathing apparatus. Or indeed at all.

And as for paint thinners ...

Of course there will be several smug, ignorant and complacent individuals along in a moment (the usual suspects) who will declare with the usual absolute certainty that only the smug, ignorant and complacent seem to possess, that such things don't represent any risk to health at all ...

I'm just off to buy some solvent based liquid gloss before it is withdrawn from sale. ;-)

[The Natural Philosopher]

I suspect in fact they will be more surprised health and safety legislation got to the stage where it threatened the very health and safety of the whole population, by its insistence on uneconomic and functionally useless products.

[Bruce]

As I said above, but you appear to have snipped:

Thank you for proving me right. ;-)

[The Natural Philosopher]

Not at all. I never said they didn't pose a risk to health. Everything does. Its the binary nature of legislation that is the problem: Safety is always a percentage game. Its never absolute and, as a society, you have to e.g. balance the risk of a soldier getting killed, with the risk that a lot more civilians may get killed if he isn't put at risk.

intelligent people understand that. Stupid people who have lived their whole lives in the nanny state don't.

You have identified yourself completely.

[geraldthehamster]

It doesn't matter, it'll all have to come out once they discover how deadly it is.

Cheers Richard