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.
Ivy City
A serious environmental issue occurred in Ivy City in 1999. In March, the city accused Hartford Knox Street Associates, owner of six apartment buildings in Southeast D.C., of illegally dumping 110 bags filled with asbestos-laden insulation in an alley in Ivy City. District of Columbia Department of Public Health officials said the company had removed the insulation without proper safety procedures from its buildings, and then dumped them in an area where residents could come into contact with the cancer-causing asbestos.