The asbestos content of tiles sometimes can be determined by size or appearance.

"We obviously have the fear that we're undercounting and underreporting the asbestos content of samples."

The main blast furnace structures were torn down in 1989, but due to asbestos content, many of the adjacent stoves still remain.

Talc went out of favor due to its asbestos content.

In some areas, she added, it is lower than the asbestos content of the outside air.

"It is not uncommon when different analysts find differences in percentages of asbestos content," the official wrote.

The use of Fibro has now been banned in several countries, including Australia itself, due to its asbestos content.

The company was brought to the brink of disclosing the asbestos content of Monokote more than two decades ago, in 1977.

The company says that it fully informed regulators of the contamination, and that the asbestos content always remained within legal limits.

Grace, he added, "has never misrepresented the asbestos content."