A Town Called AsbestWelcome to a town devoted to churning out a material that most people in the developed world consider a deadly poison.
Posted Tuesday, May 5, 2009, at 12:46 PM ET
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StumbleUpon"I've already been told about this," I said.
"The thing is," continued Belosheikin, "your Western companies are busy making expensive synthetic substitutes; that's why they engage in propaganda against us. You tell me—what's more dangerous—something natural or something synthetic? It's obvious!" He sat back, looking pleased with himself, and I drew the interview to a close.
"Even without the West, we'll survive," he said in conclusion. "There's a huge market for asbestos, and when the crisis passes, we'll be on our feet again."
Toward the end of the day, I called in on Asbest TV, the local station broadcasting to the town's residents for a few hours each evening. Here, I thought, I might get a more balanced view of the area's prospects. I shook hands with Andrei, the chief correspondent, and he shot me a wary look.
"The first thing to tell you is that there are two kinds of asbestos, chrysotile and amphibole. …" he begun. I started to tune out; I was getting tired of the chrysotile/amphibole diatribe, and I wanted to go home.
After an hourlong lecture on the many reasons why asbestos was so great, we went on a walk around the town center—the grim-looking factory towers were always in view, but the center of the city, built by German POWs after World War II, was surprisingly pleasant. Andrei kept jabbing me in the side and pointing at various passers-by. "See, they don't look ill, do they?" I later went to the local doctor's surgery, where they refused to talk to me, brushing me off with, "We don't have any problems here."
Before I left, Andrei made me promise that I would "tell the world the truth about asbestos."
That evening, I had dinner with the editor of a local paper in Ekaterinburg, the nearest big city to Asbest, and I asked him what he thought of asbestos—was there really an anti-Russian conspiracy? After all, two-thirds of the world still uses asbestos—it's only the United States and most of Europe that have banned it.
"Asbestos? My God, it's completely poisonous—no wonder the town is dying. Who on earth would want to buy asbestos these days? It gives you cancer!"
"But they say that their cancer levels are no lower than …" I began.
"No lower than where?" he interrupted. "No lower than in an oncology ward, maybe!"
I giggled, guiltily. If Asbest is ever to rise from the ashes, it'll need a big PR effort, starting closer to home than it might like to think.
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