It Is A Given,

that snow can kill you, as in an avalanche,

but what many did not know was that snow could kill you in your home and on film sets, not real snow of course, but fake snow, it happened like this, cotton wool was used as decoration for snow, but with it came the risk of fire, so what better to use than flammable cotton wool than non flammable asbestos? and better still it looked more realistic, photograph BBC caption,

photograph Flicker, old under brands like “Pure White” and “Snow Drift”, asbestos-containing fake snow was not only fire-resistant, but it looked so much more realistic than cotton, salt, flour and the other materials used until 1928, as it happens asbestos stopped being used to make fake snow and snowy winter decorations in the early 1940s, not because of its risk factor for an aggressive form of cancer known as mesothelioma, its use was stopped as huge quantities of it were used during World War 2 to fireproof Navy ships, and by 1950, a sprayable foam, with ingredients that consisted of foamite, water, sugar and soap, were being used instead, and this is something to look out for, experts warn that vintage decorations that have a “frosted” look probably contain asbestos,

back to the innovative asbestos decoration, it caught on fast, and before long, it was being used routinely in Hollywood, with the most famous example being “The Wizard of Oz” scene where snow falls on Dorothy and her friends, waking them up from a spell cast by the Wicked Witch of the West. That snow was asbestos-rich snow, “Asbestos was once marketed as artificial snow and sprinkled on trees and wreaths and ornaments. Although those products have not been produced for many years, the oldest decorations that were passed down from one generation to the next may still have small amounts of asbestos,” Asbestos.com notes, asbestos-containing artificial snow first drew attention around 2009, when Tony Rich, an industrial hygienist and anti-asbestos activist posted photos of the vintage product on photo-sharing platform Flickr, under the moniker Asbestorama, hopefully there are no products or medications that we use today that are deemed safe now, that in a few years will be found out to be life threatening.