I imagine that part could be mitigated nowadays with ventilation and HEPA filters, no?

As an aside, I'm floored by the wholesomeness of this whole thread. It's inspiring.

That's a good point, I guess I don't really know. We see with soldering stations that to really remove the hazard, the ventilation hood must flow very high rates of air and be very close to the work. However flour is not toxic the same way lead is, so maybe general filtration & ventilation would be sufficient.