How about blowing it into the air? My father had a book that instructed kids to do that. It was some sort of project book, with a title roughly similar to "Projects for Boys" or "The Boy Engineer". I'd love to know the exact title and maybe find the text.

The project in question was a volcano. It measured about 4 feet across and 2 feet tall. It was mostly made of chicken wire with paper mache. The crater was something like a large can containing a smaller can. I think the small can contained zinc and sulphur, which would burn to make suitably stinky smoke and fire. The other can contained loose powdered asbestos. A hose ran to it. You were supposed to blow into the hose, causing the asbestos to float up into the air like volcanic ash.

At least one other project in that book involved asbestos. It was a model airplane with a pulsejet engine.