Remove asbestos or lead from surfaces, using hand or power tools such as scrapers, vacuums, or high-pressure sprayers.

“Remove asbestos or lead from surfaces, using hand or power tools such as scrapers, vacuums, or high-pressure sprayers.” is a core task performed by Hazardous Materials Removal Workers. Among the occupation's 21 rated tasks, workers place it 20th by importance (#2 most important). About 72% of workers say it is relevant to their job.

This is a single occupation-specific task statement from O*NET. The figures below describe how central the task is to the job and what independent studies measure about AI and this kind of work — not a prediction that the task will be automated.

Work activities this task rolls up to

O*NET groups concrete tasks into broader work activities shared across many occupations.

• Prepare industrial materials for processing or use. in Handling and Moving Objects

AI exposure

The OpenAI / Eloundou “GPTs are GPTs” study rates this task E0. No direct exposure — current language models give little or no time savings on this task.

Exposure measures whether a model could meaningfully speed the task up — it is an estimate of overlap with model capabilities, not a measure of whether the work will be done by software. The study's intermediate score (β) for this task is 0.00. Automation potential label: T0.

Other tasks in this occupation

• Build containment areas prior to beginning abatement or decontamination work. · importance 4.4
• Identify asbestos, lead, or other hazardous materials to be removed, using monitoring devices. · importance 4.4
• Prepare hazardous material for removal or storage. · importance 4.3
• Comply with prescribed safety procedures or federal laws regulating waste disposal methods. · importance 4.3
• Record numbers of containers stored at disposal sites, specifying amounts or types of equipment or waste disposed. · importance 4.3
• Sort specialized hazardous waste at landfills or disposal centers, following proper disposal procedures. · importance 4.2
• Operate cranes to move or load baskets, casks, or canisters. · importance 4.2
• Drive trucks or other heavy equipment to convey contaminated waste to designated sea or ground locations. · importance 4.1
• Load or unload materials into containers or onto trucks, using hoists or forklifts. · importance 4.1
• Identify or separate waste products or materials for recycling or reuse. · importance 4.0
• Clean contaminated equipment or areas for reuse, using detergents or solvents, sandblasters, filter pumps, or steam cleaners. · importance 3.9
• Remove or limit contamination following emergencies involving hazardous substances. · importance 3.9
• Clean mold-contaminated sites by removing damaged porous materials or thoroughly cleaning all contaminated nonporous materials. · importance 3.9
• Operate machines or equipment to remove, package, store, or transport loads of waste materials. · importance 3.9

See all tasks on the Hazardous Materials Removal Workers page.

Sources for this page

Every figure above traces to a named public dataset and the exact release below — not hand-written opinion. See the full methodology for what each measure does and does not mean.

• O*NET 30.3 U.S. Department of Labor / National Center for O*NET Development
• “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130 OpenAI / academic

Data compiled June 2, 2026. Figures are estimates, not advice.

@misc{singulariki-task-11591,
  title  = {Remove asbestos or lead from surfaces, using hand or power tools such as scrapers, vacuums, or high-pressure sprayers.},
  author = {{Singulariki}},
  year   = {2026},
  note   = {O*NET 30.3; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130. Accessed June 7, 2026},
  url    = {https://singulariki.com/tasks/task-11591}
}