[morzh]

I think you run more risk removing asbestos than leaving it alone.
As a kid I repaired mom's iron several times, replacing the heater, and it was covered with an asbestos sheet cut in the shape of that iron.
You unscrewed to thumbnuts, removed the cover, lifted the sheet, remove the spiraled heater, replace it (they were sold in any hardware store), replace the cover and put back the nuts.

I also disassembled the soldering irons gotten bad. The heating element was wrapped in mica sheets and them wrapped around with an asbestos cord, probably to keep mica from unwrapping.
Our radio masters, as we called TV repairmen lived normal lives, and if died early - that was due to people paying them with vodka (I ain't kidding, it was customary to give them a bottle for a successful repairs of a TV or such) and them consumingit in excess, and dying form cirrhosis of liver rather than from the asbestos-related complications in lungs (or, and they all smoked. All of them. Not TVs, the TV repairmen).