SANJIV PANDITA
Asbestos is one of the substances in the modern industrial world that has caused unprecedented death and destruction among the human population, though the true picture of the disaster will probably never be known. It was formerly labelled a 'miracle mineral' due to its special properties that include strength, flexibility, low electrical conductivity, and resistance to heat and chemicals.These properties led to its mining in the late nineteenth century, since when it has been and continues to be used for thousands of products in innumerable workplaces.
There is no doubt that workers' and the general global population's exposure to it has caused serious health hazards, which include a range of lung diseases, not least
cancer of the lungs. Asbestos was responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths in the twentieth century, though no one knows the exact number yet, as it takes between 10 to 40 years for an individual to develop a lung disease associated with exposure to asbestos. In many industrialised countries today, asbestos-related deaths are the leading cause of death at the workplace, more even than occupational accidents.

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