FORTY-FIVE years ago, as a first trip third mate on an old-fashioned general cargo ship, I routinely supervised the stowage of asbestos in hessian sacks which were frequently tore open during handling. On one particular occasion, I remember, it was almost impossible to see across the tweendeck I was on as so much asbestos dust was in the air.

I had some vague idea that people were saying asbestos could be bad for you. So shortly afterwards I asked the chief mate if there was a problem. "No," he replied, "you would have to eat a bathful of the stuff to be in any danger."

Well, we know differently now but then asbestos was still very much associated with safety fire-proof gloves, effective insulation and countless other uses.