Are asbestos roof tiles dangerous to remove?
In some locations the laws require them to be removed by a qualified asbestos-removal operator. Asbestos can be dangerous if it’s disturbed such that particles become airborne. The amount of particles and their size is what makes it dangerous – if you knock off a few chunks of asbestos and the fibers are long and heavy, it’s not very dangerous. At the other extreme, if you are cutting it with a dry saw or busting it up with a sledgehammer and standing in a cloud of asbestos dust consisting of very small particles that become deeply inhaled due to their small size, then you could become a candidate for asbestosis, or possibly mesothelioma, a serious malignancy. When pros remove asbestos, they often work with it wet, or apply other coatings in order to keep the dust down. Otherwise they use special breathing apparatus and filtered ventilation (for interior work).
