Posted By Mark Preston Try the latest guidance from the DETR "Asbestos and man-made mineral fibres in buildings:practical guidance" (formerly "Asbestos in buildings") which you'll find here: http://www.environment.d...asbestos/guide/index.htm The question of "artex" or more properly, asbestos containing paints and textured plasters is an awkward one. It's probable (and as a -recently repurposed- asbestos analyst it was my experience) that most such ceiling coatings you'll encounter do not contain asbestos - but a signifcant quantity certainly will - and there's no way of knowing without first sampling and analysing the material (one of my least favourite analysis jobs - not so much looking for a needle in a haystack as a few tufts in a bucket of hardened plaster). - or you assume the stuff contains asbestos Then you face the difficulty of trying to anticipate personal exposure depending on what's going to be done with the material - I don't think there's been a lot of work done on this (I'd love to be proved wrong) If I recall the last but one ConDoc on changes to the asbestos regs - some work had shown that steaming/scraping the stuff off carried with it a low exposure risk, dry scraping or machine abrasion, however was/is a no-no. Where this leaves you installing smoke alarms is a problem. The cost of sampling and analysis of each property you visit will far outweigh the costs of the alarm and your visit. I would judge it very low risk to stick the alarm to the ceiling with a firm adhesive - BUT its subsequent removal has some exposure risk - the adhesive will more than likely pull the coating away from the ceiling substrate - effectively dry stipping a small area of ceiling. This may result in lower exposures than screwing/unscrewing the device (not machine drilling) straight through the ceiling into a joist - it may not. Whether or not these methods would result in levels above the control limit and action levels should only be determined in controlled trials - and whether or not you decided that an exposure within these limits was acceptable in a domestic setting is, thankfully, not a judgement I have to make. Necessary precautions and control measures will depend to a large extent on the exposures you anticpate, based on good evidence. If this(probably)small risk from asbestos results in fewer smoke alarms being fitted, it would be a great shame, since as I'm sure you're all too well aware, effective smoke detection/alarms are one of the most cost effective means there is of preserving lives.