Hazards magazine in 1996 accused the Health and Safety Executive of a “deadly decade of neglect.” In 1984, a ‘Goodbye dusty’ asbestos initiative was set to be the regulator’s biggest ever campaign. Posters were printed and ready to distribute to every building site in the country. They told workers to ‘STOP WORK!’ rather than risk exposure because “asbestos dust can kill.” But then the campaign was axed. Hazards says HSE “hastily withdrew the poster, following pressure from the construction industry.” It was a costly mistake in every sense. HSE backed research in 1995 revealed tens of thousands of construction workers would die as a result of exposure to asbestos, with at least a quarter of all deaths from the asbestos cancer mesothelioma in construction workers. Hazards noted: “At the press conference launching the new, 1995, construction asbestos campaign, HSE’s Peter Graham resurrected the warning HSE had been too craven to stand by a decade before. ‘If you think a substance is asbestos, stop work.’ This long postponed warning will come too late for some.”

The long goodbye, Hazards, number 53, October-December 1995.