Asbestos News

A horse owner in the UK made an unexpected asbestos find after a mineshaft beneath his animal's field collapsed.

David Rashleigh's horse died when the mineshaft collapsed, and the operation to recover the equine's body turned up the naturally occurring carcinogen, according to BBC News.

"I hired a digger to get the horse out. I was moving nothing but asbestos. I would say there was about ten tonnes of it," Rashleigh told the news provider. "The bulk of it was corrugated asbestos but there was also white sheet asbestos. I was led to believe that was the most dangerous one."

Rashleigh said he contacted the proper authorities about the asbestos once it was uncovered. The Environment Agency said it is currently investigating the incident to determine who is responsible for the asbestos dumping.

The disposal of asbestos is highly regulated because if the substance is disturbed it puts people at risk for inhaling its fibers. The inhalation of these fibers has been proven to cause a number of serious illnesses such as asbestosis, lung cancer and malignant mesothelioma, a rare and deadly cancer that typically attacks the lungs.