• the Armley asbestos disaster involved the contamination of about 1,000 houses in West Yorkshire, England, with asbestos dust?
• over 120,000 cubic yards of asbestos-containing sediment from an active, slow moving landslide is deposited into Swift Creek, Washington each year?
• Gloria J. Romero is leading a campaign in the California Legislature to remove serpentine as the official state rock because it is a source of cancer-causing asbestos?

Facts on topics related to Asbestos

Hemp

• Tang Dynasty official Zheng Yin opposed issuance of commissions for eunuch commandants on hemp paper, saying it was reserved for commissions of imperial princes and chancellors?
• the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act proposes that two percent of proceeds from the sale of cannabis promote industrial hemp biodiesel, fiber, protein and oil?

Cotton

• part of the land where the depopulated Palestinian village territory of Jahula lay is used to cultivate cotton and watermelons today?

Flax

• a heckling comb is used when hand processing flax to comb out and clean the fibers?
• both scutching and heckling are steps in the process of turning flax into linen?

Rayon

• rayon fibers used to make clothes come from trees pulped using the sulfite process?

Bamboo

• Dorothy Liebes, known as "the mother of modern weaving", made fabrics out of feathers, bamboo, leather strips, plastic, and ticker tape?
• Arundinaria appalachiana is one of only three bamboos native to temperate North America?
• chaki (pictured), tea caddies for Japanese tea ceremonies, are traditionally made from wood, bamboo, or ceramic, and are classified by material, shape and the type of tea they are designed to hold?
• in Cambodia a person can catch the norry, an improvised bamboo train?
• in the Indian Gaarudi Gombe ceremonial dance, dancers are required to wear full-body doll-suits made of bamboo sticks?
• more than one thousand people are caned in Singapore each year using a bamboo cane that has been soaked in water overnight to prevent splitting?
• the bamboo species Bambusa oldhamii, known as the Giant Timber Bamboo, has been introduced into California, where it is the most common clumping bamboo?
• the flowers of the bamboo species Bambusa lako of Timor have yet to be scientifically observed?

Polyethylene

• the Beatles' song "Polythene Pam" was partly inspired by a Liverpool fan who ate polyethylene?
• rainwater tanks may be made from polyethylene, concrete, or galvanised steel, but not from clear plastic, because it would allow in sunlight, leading to algal blooms?
• a fluidized bed reactor (pictured) can be used in the creation of fuel, rubber, vinyl chloride, polyethylene, and styrenes?

Cashmere wool

• cameline, a middle ages "cheap" fabric of camel's hair, is considered by some authorities to be what we call today cashmere?