It’s not that straightforward. Asbestos comes in many forms with varying friability. Mixed into linoleum floor tiles? Probably not a big deal. Mixed into wall plaster in a poorly maintained rental unit? A hell of a lot riskier. And a lot of the buildings that have asbestos-wrapped pipes, for example, have cramped utility crawl spaces and basements that can make it difficult to avoid. If you’ve got asbestos hidden behind a stable and well-maintained wall, or on utility lines that are easily avoided, then whatever. That’s frequently not the case, however.
The single largest use of asbestos here was in fibre cement cladding, which is fine if you don't decide to cut or drill into it. In fact given that it's nearly indestructible and will wear most saw blades and drills down to a stump in about 5cm of cutting, you couldn't cut/drill it even if you wanted to. Neighbour of ours wanted to put in a serving hatch outside his kitchen and after about 20 minutes of attacking it with all sorts of devices gave up and decided they'd just pass stuff out through the window instead.
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It’s not that straightforward. Asbestos comes in many forms with varying friability. Mixed into linoleum floor tiles? Probably not a big deal. Mixed into wall plaster in a poorly maintained rental unit? A hell of a lot riskier. And a lot of the buildings that have asbestos-wrapped pipes, for example, have cramped utility crawl spaces and basements that can make it difficult to avoid. If you’ve got asbestos hidden behind a stable and well-maintained wall, or on utility lines that are easily avoided, then whatever. That’s frequently not the case, however.
The single largest use of asbestos here was in fibre cement cladding, which is fine if you don't decide to cut or drill into it. In fact given that it's nearly indestructible and will wear most saw blades and drills down to a stump in about 5cm of cutting, you couldn't cut/drill it even if you wanted to. Neighbour of ours wanted to put in a serving hatch outside his kitchen and after about 20 minutes of attacking it with all sorts of devices gave up and decided they'd just pass stuff out through the window instead.
Yeah that’s not friable asbestos. People only care about friable asbestos, which is a huge problem in many places.