Tangled Metal wrote:If you have it in your own house you are allowed to remove it and can arrange to take it to one of the council run waste sites. You just have to protect yourself. No specialist equipment other than PPE and something you wet it down to minimise dust.
That is because H&S legislation does not apply to private householders doing work themselves, despite the fact that the risks are the same. In the householder's favour is the probability that the task is an isolated one limited to just their own home, whereas it's repeated exposure that results in the much higher risk to contractors. I think that the risk of diseases caused by asbestos like lung cancer is largely the result of accumulated exposure, but mesothelioma is caused by as little as one asbestos fibre, so it's akin to playing russian roulettte and an extremely small percentage of people will be extremely unlucky and get it from very limited exposure.
I would be reasonably happy to remove and dispose of some corrugated asbestos sheet from the roof of an outbuilding: wetting it down, wrapping it plastic sheet as much as possible before breaking it into more manageable pieces and double bagging them, and wearing disposable PPE/RPE. If it's inside the building and is something like asbestos insulation board, and removing it is likely to result in a lot of fibres being released, that's best done by professionals with the right kit, not least the clean up afterwards to remove the fibres released during the work. 99.9% of the time it's best left in place with a warning label affixed not to disturb it.
In this particular case the ceiling collapse has forced the landlord's hand, and they have probably had to get not just the ceiling tested to determine whether it's asbestos and what type, but also much of the rest of the building, especially the parts that will be exposed by the removal of the ceiling and might themselves need to be removed and replaced as well. Given the likely age of the building, I suspect it will be the worst type of asbestos containing material. Evidently the work will take some time to complete, hence the plan to provide another shop unit for the tenant to move into while the work is done.