Ok there are ways to take the tiles up safely.
First you dont want to destroy the old tiles and making
them into powder. That makes it airborne. What you
can do is scrape them up with a scraper. If they are old
and the adhesive is crap then they just pop up.
Oh and by the way... The adhesive can contain asbestos too.
I would spray the tiles down with some water to keep airborne nasties
to
a minumum. A good dust mask is good idea too. (respirator is normally
recommended)

I would use a good fan in the window (blowing out) and seal off
the area to make some negative pressure... This is so the crap
doesnt spread to the rest of the house.

Take the old tiles, put them into boxes and seal them well.
Give the garbage men a nice tip and let them take it away!

Now the problem you have is the old adhesive on the floor.
Home Depot and Lowes do make solvents that break that stuff
down and make it mushy. Its pretty easy to scrape it up.
Once the floor is clean and most if not all the adhesive is up I
would use a nice adhesive from HD or lowes to make those
vinyl tiles stick well. If the flooring is not level, the do make
stuff to help with that and make it flat.

Hope this helps!
Tom

jim wrote:
Yes they are 9" . The white dust is the concrete and it is around the
edges of the tiles i think it is where moisture from the air has got to
the concrete between the gaps. The concrete is actually very dry, i
just want to make sure it stays dry.
Oh well i may as well take up smoking. )