The ACT safety course, targeted initially at electricians and plumbers, will show tradies how to use a suction cap to trap asbestos debris which could otherwise be inhaled during drilling or other penetration of building materials.

ACT Construction Services branch director Craig Simmons said the program was designed to raise the level of safety for those in the residential sector who had to work with bonded asbestos products.

"'Tradesmen [drilling] look at it, turn away, hold their breath and hope like hell ... it's pretty much as much advice as the industry's got at the moment," he said.

The course is a new middle tier of asbestos education, below that required of asbestos removalists who will face direct WorkSafe oversight as they deal with the unprecedented Mr Fluffy loose-fill asbestos demolitions.

Research by E-Oz Energy Skills Australia, for the course development, found another popular trade precaution of putting a cup filled with shaving cream over the drill site failed to remove the risk of airborne asbestos.

Workplace Safety Minister Mick Gentleman, who launched the Working Safely with Asbestos-containing Materials course this week, said it broke new ground, as had the asbestos awareness course before it.

"I believe this course has the potential to become the de facto national training course for tradespeople who are called to work with asbestos," he said.

The asbestos awareness course, completed by about 16,000 tradies, educates workers on what asbestos looks like and to seek advice if found.

The new course goes beyond risk assessment to putting in place contamination controls and the choice of appropriate tools.

Mr Simmons said the length of the course was not finalised but it was expected to take between four and eight hours.

Work Safety Commissioner Mark McCabe said it would not be a mandatory program.

Mr Simmons said it was not feasible to eliminate asbestos products in the residential sector.

About 60,000 ACT homes contain bonded asbestos.

"Anything to the south of Gungahlin, and north of Johnson Drive, Richardson, everything in that zone – with Dunlop and Molonglo excluded – had asbestos and there's a 90 per cent chance you've got [it in your home]," he said.

The course was accredited by the skills authority last month and July was the target date for the first training.

More than 10,000 Australians have died from mesothelioma since the early 1980s.

Another 25,000 people are expected to die from it over the next four decades.