The kind of ceilings that contained asbestos looked different from the modern
popcorn ceilings. They had very small pebble type as opposed to the larger
looking ones today. We built a house in 1963 and it had what was probably
asbestos in it. When we got ready to sell the house we were told that there
was no problem - as long as the asbestos was encased in paint it posed no
health risk.

The house we have now was built in 1983 after asbestos was banned in ceiling
paint - it isn't very P-R-E-T-T-Y but it is safe.