The architecture of buildings around Denver stands as a testament to years past. Styles of older homes can run the gamut from a classic bungalow to a Victorian to a Tudor, just to name a few. But sometimes those buildings were constructed with outdated materials like asbestos.

Today, asbestos can still be found within insulation and popcorn ceilings, hiding in walls only to be discovered during a home renovation or the replacement of a waterline. And when it is discovered, it can be more than just a nuisance: It can pose a potential health hazard, and cleanup is a complicated process that can require the temporary displacement of homeowners and tenants, and can be a financial burden on everyone involved.

On Wednesday, a crew of two for Asbestos Abatement Inc., took a hammer to a kitchen wall at Monaco Place Condominiums in Denver. Earlier in the morning, licensed asbestos worker Jacob Wilson, 22, and supervisor Brad Packwood, 43, donned their full-body hazmat suits and respirator masks before starting the second day of the two-day project.

For the unit’s owner to move forward with her kitchen remodel, she’ll shell out almost $4,000 for the asbestos removal.

Wilson and Packwood take safety precautions, including personal protective equipment, on-site showers and annual testing, like pulmonary function tests and chest X-rays, because they regularly work around asbestos, a naturally-occurring mineral fiber that can cause lung cancer, mesothelioma and asbestosis, or lung scarring.

What Denver renters and homeowners may not know is that they can face those same risks if they make their own renovations to older residences, which were often constructed using asbestos — a cheap, heat-resistant insulator.

Last year, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment’s Air Pollution Control Division received 384 major asbestos spill notifications across the state, with an additional 170 notifications so far in 2023, spokesperson Leah Schleifer said.

Starting in the 1970s, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency banned a few uses of asbestos, including corrugated paper, flooring felt and any new uses of asbestos in products after August 1989. But “most uses of asbestos are not banned,” because of a court ruling in 1991, the agency reported.

“It’s not illegal here, which is unbelievable,” said Joel Egelman, president of Asbestos Abatement. “My guess is, probably, pretty much everyone in America at one point or another — because it’s so prevalent — has inhaled asbestos.”

Egelman said his own home has asbestos in its walls. “If it’s not disturbed, it’s completely benign.”

But fires, floods and home renovations can release microscopic shards of asbestos, which are harmful when inhaled.

His company, which removes asbestos, typically takes on six to seven projects per week, with a team of 18. “There’s certainly no shortage” of business — 60% of which is residential, Egelman said.

As for the fate of the excised asbestos, it’s taken to a dump in Aurora to be buried. “And it sits there in perpetuity,” Egelman added.