A company’s profitable financial opportunity regarding the carcinogenic asbestos chemical brings into question what a company should do when it is aware that a product may not be safe but lacks scientific proof that the product is dangerous. Thirty years ago when the fireproofing spray asbestos was identified as a cancer-causing agent, most companies stopped using it in offices, schools and hotels, but W.R. Grace announced that it had an asbestos free spray and cashed in by spraying it in buildings across the country. Unfortunately, the spray indeed had small amounts of asbestos, which the company knew about, but did not reveal.
See "Company’s Silence Countered Safety Fears About Asbestos", Michael Moss and Adrianne Appel, The New York Times, July 8, 2001