Dad was an executive and principle engineer at a hazardous waste abatement firm. Lots of asbestos and superfund site cleanups. I got a lot of collateral knowledge. From: Ian King <IanK at vulcan.com>>The primary metric is the 'friability' of the asbestosPrecisely. Not all asbestos is created equal; much is completely harmless, some is frighteningly damaging. Friability is a fancy way of saying how finely do the asbestos fiber shatter under stress. The finer the particles, the more dangerous. Well...not exactly (IMO). The legislation followed the trial lawyers making "asbestos" the equivalent of "plutonium" or "cyanide" in the minds of the public and therefore the jury pool. It's really tough to convince a jury that this asbestos is potentially lethal, but that form is harmless, especially when platiff is coughing his lungs up in the corner. P.S. - I am *not* saying there wasn't a cavalier attitude toward the stuff, and a lot of people were hurt without cause. KJ