Worked in ship building as a youngster and after the laggers had finished their work in the engine room lagging pipes various asbestos was an inch or so deep covering absolutely everything, had to brush it off onto the deck to be able to work on your relevant piece of equipment. A few succumbed to mesothelioma in their latter years, but given the exposure I am surprised at the low number given the status the product now has.

Dragartist, the engine covers on the Canberras had asbestos linings.

I wonder what the lining of Tornado engine exhaust covers are made of??

I'm pretty certain that Vulcan jet pipes were lagged with Refrasil, asbestos free. I thought that was in common usage. https://www.sglgroup.com/cms/international/products/product-groups/cm/refrasil/index.html?__locale=en

The Lynx had issues with the blower motor impellers behind the pedals. They were made from Asbestos.

I'm quite surprised it stayed in common use long after the UK realised in 1906 that Asbestos was dangerous.

DOes anyone know which type it was?

Chrysotile, Amosite or Crocidolite ? (White, Brown and Blue respectively)

Although not belittling the exposure in any quantity the Australians are still dealing with this places' legacy - I think they've currently identified 5 discreet 'waves'

1. Miners
2. Millers
3. Housewives / children
4. Product workers further down the line
5. People exposed in DiY renovations.

https://www.commerce.wa.gov.au/works...ttenoom-images

And they are yet to see the peak incidence of Mesothelioma.

My hangar is painted in the stuff, the roof is also made of it.

We were moved out of the COC at Bruggen in the mid 70's (1978) so they could remove the Asbestos lining. We were given chest X Rays for 10 years to check, very novel working out of the old standby COC for a couple of months.

Asbestos (both types)
Dichloromethane
M.E.K.
Trich
Cadmium solution and coating
Polycast
Genklene
Radhaz
Avcat fumes
Burnt avcat
Fiberglass
Broken beta lights
Hydraulic fluid
Oils and greases
Guys Our super power is we're still alive after all that!

I sometimes wonder the same thing myself !
Some of us are old enough to add to that list,
Carbon tetrachloride (CTC), the forerunner of Trich and widely used as a cleaning fluid in radio workshops.
Years of breathing lead based solder fumes, it was years before forced ventilation soldering stations were introduced.

PACE stations. I assume they've improved!

I recall a colleague being told he was being put on the new vacuum cadmium plant. As ever, it was delivered on a truck and left to the maintenance sparks to install it. No instructions, no training. Made a change from wiring kettle plugs though. Bob disappeared for few months, trying to work out what to do. When he reappeared one day, his thick shock of combed-back silver hair was two-tone. The new growth was a sickly yellow. He died a few months later. Natural causes allegedly. Aye, right. Everyone gave the plant a body swerve after that and I'm not convinced there were many properly treated high tensile bolts. Big earner for MoD though. Most of the work was repayment from industry.

Add to the list Strontium Chromate, that was in little bags clipped along the bottom of the Nimrod fuselage under the fuel cells that had to be replaced each Major servicing, always wondered why the old stuff was put in a plastic bag, then put into a 'Coffee' tin and the lid soldered shut before it disappeared somewhere for disposal, but we were given little in the way of instructions for PPE required, other than rubber gloves.

Some of us used to fly around with a lapful of luminous instruments as well.

Remember my intro to 39 SQN, running about with burning gloves looking for a drum of water!!!

"welcome lad, good you listened to safery brief, thanks for the entertainment now come join the rest of the SQN for a beer!!!!"

hint Avpin starter evil linies and espirit de corps!

Yes got the avpin, starter cartridge, asbestos gloves and fumes 'ticks' from the Javelin, Hunter and Lightning in that order. Plus lead solder, CTC etc.
30 + years flying in the Hercules. What dodgy substances were hidden in that a/c ? I do know that the very thin insulation blanket was know to give off Phosgene gas when heated and that other materials must have been just as deadly.

With solder I think the primary concern (from the point of view of working with it) was the fumes given off by the flux, not the lead content. Obviously from a disposal / hygiene point of view the lead is still a problem. The worst of all was lead solder paste, as that had the lead in an easily ingested form. Lead free solder still has the flux, and that's still a problem.

Lead solder is still in use for high reliability in nasty environment applications. Lead-free solder is generally reckoned to be more fragile. It's certainly harder to get a lead free soldering process to be reliable.

It's slightly tricky to balance: lots of scrapped electronics due to failed lead-free soldering processes, or less scrap because of the use of lead solder? There's plenty of other nasties in electronics that makes needless scrapping pretty undesirable. The commercial world has largely got on top of lead free soldering processes now, so I think the argument in that space is firmly on the side of lead free.

Australian FAA experience.

https://www.faaaa.asn.au/work-sea-kings/

Read Megans.
 

It mentions Toulene base chemicals and specifically mentions shrouded oil lines on the seaking engines as a source of asbestos. Also dichloromethane (paint strip).

So exposure for the most part will be limited to those working on engines but then again it does float in the air. Better news than it being in the cab, I think.

Ironically it'll be the greenies who get it from laying down doing the looms on ECU changes. They always looked so clean ... :(.

There was a room in 4 shed, Marham, that was OOB but it was "cleared" by specialised contractors [who formed a sealed off area with poly sheeting etc] shortly before the run down...
Trouble is

1. It was on a throughway
2. It had been unsecured for years with a broken/open window above door....