While there is some scientific basis for claims that chrysotile, also known as “white asbestos,” is less dangerous than “black” and “blue” asbestos, the International Agency for Research on Cancer said “there is sufficient evidence in humans for the carcinogenicity of all forms of asbestos,” including chrysotile.

Uralasbest says that cases of disease among employees have fallen sharply as it has introduced better air filters in its huge processing plant and forced workers there to wear better masks. But, while boasting of its improved conditions, the company declined to grant access to the factory, saying it was in a restricted zone.

The view of many Asbest residents is that there are so many other things to worry about in their heavily industrialized region, including a nuclear power station just a few miles away and an even nearer coal-fired power plant, that asbestos is probably the least of their worries.

“Everything is potentially dangerous,” said Ksyusha Ustinova, a 30-year-old woman who, dressed in a fur-trimmed coat, came with friends last week to peer into the six-mile-long hole on the outskirts of town where asbestos is mined. “Why worry about asbestos so much?”

Viktor Stepanov, an 88-year-old pensioner who spent decades working in the asbestos factory, said his own advanced age and continuing good health were proof that all the “hysteria” about asbestos could not be true. He explained that while working at the asbestos plant, he drank a bottle of milk a day, which the company provided free to help workers fend off disease.

“Everything is dangerous to some degree,” he said. “One-hundred percent guarantees that something is not harmful do not exist.”