I remember reading somewhere, long ago, that asbestos exposure wasn’t really that harmful unless you also smoked. Somehow the combination of the two is really deadly.
I worked in the environmental consulting business for a number of years. Did a lot of training on Asbestos. It was great stuff, but did a lot of damage if inhaled. The symbiotic effect of smoking made it worse. The lungs could clear some of the fibers, but if you smoked you killed off you cilia which were the lungs cleaning apparatus. Which made it less likely any of the Asbestos particles would be expelled.
You are correct. I’ve read the same.
Tort attorneys have made billions of dollars demonizing a very effective natural product.
Books have been written about how they come into a town with mobile X-ray and promises of big payoffs and miraculously everyone who takes an x-ray is infected.
And stupid juries made up of ignorant people award billions.