Armley asbestos disaster
On 20 July 1982, Yorkshire Television broadcast the documentary "Alice - A Fight For Life", predominantly the story of Alice Jefferson, who had worked at the Acre Mill asbestos factory in Hebden Bridge for just nine months when she was 17 years old. Thirty years later she was diagnosed with mesothelioma and given only six months to live. The documentary was also an "exposé on the workings of the asbestos industry." Its broadcast resulted in £60 million being knocked off T&N's share price overnight, headlines in the national newspapers, and the setting up of a government enquiry. Within ten days the government had halved the legal limit for asbestos dust in the workplace. In 1988 Yorkshire Television picked up the "Yorkshire Evening Post" story and produced a second critical investigation focusing on the pattern of deaths in Armley, and contradicting the government's reasons for refusing an inquiry. Called "Too Close to Home", it was broadcast as part of the "First Tuesday" documentary series on 6 December 1988.
Andrew Schneider (journalist)
Schneider continued his reporting on asbestos after leaving the "P-I" for the "St. Louis Post-Dispatch" in 2001, uncovering asbestos-related hazards from the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City. Schneider, along with "P-I" editor David McCumber, published a book of their findings entitled ""An Air That Kills: How the Asbestos Poisoning of Libby, Montana Uncovered a National Scandal"". The book, compiled from Schneider's previous investigations, also revealed that harmful asbestos-related material was in continual use in new construction and household products, and alleged that the federal government withheld the risk of asbestos-related disease after the September 11 attacks. The Libby story was later adapted in 2007 into a documentary film by PBS's "P.O.V." program. Schneider and McCumber released an e-book in 2016, "An Air That Still Kills", updating their findings on Libby after the EPA declared the city "safe to live in".