Really a bummer, isn't it, that such a useful material is so awful.

Heh, we just had to have our church boiler re-insulated last year, after discovering the frayed stuff around it was full of asbestos. Just saying the word "asbestos" freaked people out so much I took to calling the project our "boiler re-insulation proejct" instead of the "asbestos removal project".

We have a few pipes in the basement wrapped in the stuff. It's painted over and we try not to touch them. One of these days we'll have to get someone qualified to remove it.

We have a ton of lead paint too but it's a 146 year old house, that comes with the territory.