[ Colin MacKinnon wrote in 021202 MMDigest:

> The NSW Governor, and ex-Navy Rear Admiral, Sir David Martin, died of
> Mesothelioma, contracted by incidental exposure to asbestos lagging
> on Navy ships during his service.  We watched him on TV, suffering
> and struggling to breathe, to perform his public duties, till he took
> early retirement and died 4 days later.  It was a salutary warning of
> what asbestos does to you.
>
>     http://www.warmemorialsnsw.asn.au/martin.cfm

Well, he wasn't exposed any more than anyone else with long service
in the Navy.  He was born in 1933 and died in 1990.  The web site says
nothing at all about asbestos.

> I suggest you search the Internet to see if it is all bunkum.
> Here are a few suggested sites.
>
>     http://www.mesothelioma.net/Exposes.html
>
>     http://www.mesothel.com/pages/deaths_pag.htm

These are web sites that are sponsored by two law firms which bring
asbestos cases to court.

> Have I given you cause to think?  I hope I have shown that asbestos
> is not something to take for granted.

You have not.  The scientific evidence is inconclusive.  The various
legal proceedings and regulations have been a triumph of public
relations, but hardly of interest to anyone who is trying to get at
the truth of the matter.

One of the web sites you've listed refers to books by Mr Paul Brodeur,
who also wrote a book exposing the danger of power lines in a dramatic
manner: "Currents of Death," it was called.  The entire proposition
turned out to be bogus.

Mark Kinsler