It is estimated that asbestos will be responsible for 100 000 deaths in France by 2025. The victims will not only be just asbestos workers, builders, car manufacturers, naval construction workers, but also their families and friends and those livings close to the factories.

How did things get so far out of control? To find an answer to this vital question, director Daniel Cattelain returned to his native Condé-sur-Noireau, a sizeable town in the Calvados region, which worked with asbestos for over a century. He went to ask the key players of the time: workers, managers, doctors and patients. From their memories and recollections, it became obvious that the truth had been known for some time. But which truth? And for how long ? What did those who knew do about it ? Why wait so long before asbestos was banned ? In a sense, this is a documentary about « deadly inertia ».