Asbestos is a wonder material, and insanely cheap. They put it in everything from roads to siding for homes to insulation for ventilation ducts, and everything inbetween. And it's "totally safe" for these purposes - so long as it is never touched again. Once a housing siding tile is cracked or broken by say, a baseball, it degrades and starts being released into the local environment.

So you have a highly toxic material, but it's encapsulated and totally safe for 30 years, well past the average age of home ownership. "It's somebody elses problem"! So the result is, every house built in 1940-1970 has asbestos in it, and while their children weren't directly exposed to asbestos, now it is breaking down and our generation (and future generations, asbestos sticks around for a very, very long time - that's part of it's "wonder material" story) now have to deal with the problem.

So yes, just label it "hey this stuff is crazy toxic, but not for your family, and not the family after, so there's no risk to you, and no economic downside since it won't impact your property value" so it ends up being purchased as both the best and cheapest building material, but now you're building 250,000 houses that double as toxic waste dumps for future generations

Just labeling asbestos as toxic and letting the market decide, in this specific situation, is peak boomerism.