Asbestos used to be a popular material in the 1960's until the early 80's, which was mainly produced for construction and building supply companies. Other asbestos jobs were also commonly seen in the military.

I remember very well when I used to help my father working on our newly built house. We used to work for days on cutting and installing drywall size asbestos sheets, which were basically used as the siding for our all of the houses back then.

But anyway, no other area than the commercial building and construction offered that many jobs in asbestos manufacturing and distribution.
Surprisingly, some recent studies suggest that there are still more than 1.5 million asbestos jobs available and due to the downturned economy, all of them are taken by employees who are willing or forced to take the risk of being exposed to this hazardous material on a daily basis.

Asbestos abatement jobs and asbestos removal jobs have actually experienced a higher demand recently, due to the fact that more and more people are becoming aware of the dangerous environment they might be living in and want to get rid of any harmful material they might be exposed to.

That might be a good thing for the economy and for those who were desperately looking for a new job, on the other hand though, it is clear that those employees are exposing themselves to a significantly higher risk, given all the activities like cutting steel building and building demolition, tile makers, auto break repair and replacements they have to do as part of their respective job
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Of course, state of the art protection gear has become the law for any asbestos job. But still, even the best mask or overall suit, can’t prevent microscopically small dust particles to find their way on to someone's skin or even worse, into his lung.
Evidentially, asbestos has been proven as a cause of various lung diseases, such as cancer of the lung and mesothelioma. That explains the recent boom of law firms who now solely focus on lawsuit or settlements of former workers of the asbestos manufacturing industry.

Further to that, the government did enact rules in order to limit the amount of exposure to the material that comes with asbestos jobs. These rules and laws need to be abided by the companies, otherwise the government may initiate and investigation and take further legal action.

There is a lot of money involved. If a former employee is able to prove that his illness is asbestos induced, he has a good chance of getting compensated generously. However, obviously for a very high price he already had to pay on his health. As you might have noticed by the media coverage, some big time money was paid out in successfully completed mesothelioma class actions.

The fact of the matter is, any asbestos job is dangerous. Some are more and others are less. If you happen to work in an industry where you might get exposed to hazardous materials, it is absolutely necessary to protect yourself as much as possible.

Mesothelioma is a slowly progressing disease. It might take years or even decades until it starts showing its first signs. Therefore, education and protection is an obligation to everybody who has a job or employs in the asbestos industry.