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Comment by baybal2 | Hacker News Reader

I lived in a house with asbestos-cement roof, and an apartment with asbestos-cement drywall when I was living in Russia.

Didn't die, or anything, just as much as nearly all ex-USSR states population. That stuff was everywhere there.

I believe the stuff is largely benign depending on asbestos having larger fiber sizes, and being weathered, or painted over.

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It is largely benign when left alone. The problem is working with and disposing of it, it's a hazardous material and so can be expensive to deal with in many developed countries.

There was discussion here a while ago, that effect is genetically affected as well. Some people have traits which makes them weak against asbestos, some go without problems.

Link/citation?

Yup. When I was renovating my 100 year old house I discovered that behind the weatherboards/clapboards was a layer of old, mostly broken asbestos panelling. I called a specialist disposal firm and they quoted two prices - one for internal removal (I was only renovating the inside) and the other for external. External is a lot cheaper - for internal removals they have to seal off the rest of the house and place air quality monitors and check them for some time after the removal to make sure that there are no loose particles floating around. So it was cheaper to finish redoing the plasterboard inside the house, then remove all of the external weatherboards, have them come and do an external removal, and then rebuild with new weatherboards. The price difference made it worth it, even including buying all new weatherboards!

While its largely begin if properly sealed and left alone, keep in mind that it can take 10-40 years after exposure before bad things happen.

I still live in a house with an asbestos cement roof. built in the 70s, germany

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