Asbestos was originally hailed as a miracle mineral that could withstand high heat, intense weather, and sea travel. This natural occurring mineral was used in most buildings up until the 1980s. As a result a lot of people live in homes and work in buildings containing asbestos. Lawsuits surrounding asbestos injuries put many large companies out of business. These companies failed to inform and protect their workers even though they had medical data that showed asbestos caused asbestosis, desmoplastic mesothelioma, and other forms of cancer. The dangers of asbestos became known because of insurance companies refusal to insure workers who worked around asbestos. The data collected showed many people in asbestos jobs contracting the same illness. This put asbestos workers at high risk, as a result they were denied coverage.

Hundreds of thousands of blue-collar workers have died due to asbestos exposure. Historically jobs that worked with asbestos were plumbing, construction, shipping, and railways. A new asbestos exposure occurred nearly a decade ago that exposed one of the wealthiest cities in the world. When the World Trade Center came crashing down on 9/11 a cloud of asbestos dust filled the air of Manhattan. Home to Wall Street, politicians, actors and some of the wealthiest people in the world. A cloud of dust lay over the city for months and was full of airborne asbestos. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) heads came out on public television assuring the people who reside in the surrounding areas that the air was safe to breath, the water was safe to drink and the food was safe to eat.

This information was not true in the surrounding areas of ground zero. Anyone who attended school, worked, and lived within the surrounding area was exposed because they were assured it was safe. Many volunteers have died due to the poisonous air.  There was a sign posted on the site of ground zero warning of asbestos but given the tragic and urgency of the event many asbestos precautions were overlooked. Victims of this tragedy are still looking for justice.  Many volunteers have passed away due to their service in cleaning the area of Manhattan with no compensation.