The story of asbestos is like that of leaded gasoline.  Its manufacturers knew for decades it was a deadly threat to human health, but they sold it just the same. Alisa Ghura of the Brookings Institution on the presence of asbestos in Philadelphia's public schools.  Ordinary school buildings filled with impoverished, mostly-minority students get patched, elite schools get fixed. The problem and the faux-solution exists in other cities from Baltimore to Chicago to Berkeley, CA.