Studies have tied acute exposure to deleterious effects, asbestos just takes 10-40 years to kill you. That means it used to not really matter if you were 30+ because by that point you were going to die from smoking, drinking, and a 1950's American diet. People live longer now.

It is not like smoking because inhalation of tobacco smoke constituents have removal pathways. Carcinogenic asbestos fibers stay in your lungs and cultivate cancer for 10-40 years until they kill you.