How many of you were exposed to asbestos at high school? Lets see in my high school which was new in 1979 it was completely clad in unpainted asbestos cement sheeting. Then there’s the asbestos desks in science, chemistry and tech studies. If you went to an older brick high school chances are there was asbestos inside the airconditioning/heating systems.

Don’t forget those wonderful chemistry bunsen burner asbestos cement mats and the metal gauze mats that sat on the tripods with a circle of asbestos…..

I remember fellow classmates scratching their initials in the black asbestos resin desktops or the asbestos cement ones… probably still there today. 

I remember distillation equipment in the chemistry labs wrapped in asbestos ( because we were curious how we could distill stuff ourselves…..)

Also heat stirrers, tongs and gloves of asbestos these gloves as well as welding aprons of woven asbestos were also used in tech studies metalworking.

If you were lucky enough to work on car or in our case lawn mower engines there were gaskets and seals of asbestos which were removed and replaced each time the engines were dismantled.

Remember blowing the asbestos dust out of the wheel rims when you replaced the brake pads or shoe linings especially if your mate was sitting right there!

 And of course when you got your first car you had to put extractors and modified heads on the engine…. but that pesky asbestos manifold or head gasket had to be wire brushed off…. with your face right there to make sure you got it all.

Or dancing all night at that night club that had been a movie theatre sprayed with asbestos….. hardly needed the smoke machine with the asbestos haze from the speakers

 How many times were you exposed to asbestos ….