PCB's will stick to you though. And when they burn there's an acrid and oily smoke. We had a pair of transformer vault fires in buildings I was on the design of. I was doling out drycleaning money to "bystanders" for months.
It's a strange thing how we have been so unaware of toxics. We are finding out that there's a *** cancer hot spot in the next town to the north, where there's been a styrofoam cup factory for decades. We all hope this gets investigated. Wife and daughter, after all.
In eighth grade shop circa 1968 we had a project making hot plates. It involved being issued a 2' x 2' piece of 1/4" thick asbestos board, the kind plumbers used to make flues out of, like Transite.
So we all stood in line to have our turn at the band saw to cut the thing up into a square base and a series of strips. Then off to the drill press to make a row of holes for the bolts.
So I'm cutting up my board and the saw begins to chatter.
"Boy! Don't you know how to cut asbestos board? Let me show you how!". Mr. Costarella was also a chain smoker, but he passed away of lung cancer at the age of 68.
I've been out to Suisun a few times. There's a writer for the San Francisco Chronicle named Carl Nolte who follows these things. look him up on sfgate.com. He writes great articles.