Asbestos is a naturally occurring group of fibrous minerals that was widely used in building materials because of its durability, heat resistance, fire resistance, and insulating properties. For decades, asbestos was incorporated into products such as insulation, flooring, roofing, joint compound, plaster, mastics, cement products, and pipe insulation.
Asbestos-containing materials are not necessarily hazardous simply because they are present. The primary concern occurs when asbestos-containing material is damaged, deteriorated, cut, sanded, drilled, demolished, or otherwise disturbed, potentially releasing microscopic asbestos fibers into the air.
Because asbestos cannot reliably be identified by appearance alone, laboratory analysis is generally necessary to determine whether a suspect building material contains asbestos.