Removal of acoustic popcorn ceiling?

Excuse me for being a kill-joy here but has anyone thought about the possiblity of asbestos in the ceiling pop-corn. Before 1979 asbestos was a major part of it and even afterward. Prudence dictates that you consider this possiblity. A test would be a minor expense. And if asbestos is involve, I would have it professionally done. Or seal it up with a new sprayed-on paint job and leave it.

We have removed popcorn from our own ceiling using a
specially designed scraping blade. Another option would
be to install a second ceiling over the present ceiling.
This latter goes much more quickly and gives a better
finished result.

dunno what you mean by "popcorn ceiling" but if it helps to reduce slap echo then you'll be the worse for removing it. I had our whole living room ceiling sprayed 1" thick with cellulose insulation fiber (bleached white vs. the standard warehouse gray). This helped tremendously & while the room is still slightly 'hot' acoustically, ordinary wall rugs, partial floor carpet, & some stuffed furniture were adequate enough treatments that no 'special treatment appliances' were needed. For me this ceiling is much more WAF-freindly than the ugly alternatives if I didn't have that ceiling.

The asbestos date was 1977--phased-out from 1974 law./ Builders were allowed to use what they had/ It just couldn't be mfg'ed after 74./By 77 you couldn't use it period. One could have a sample tested. You can use an encapsulating rubberized paint over it.(Legal) If you are sure it is post 77 and want it removed--empty the room, plastic the walls and floor, wet it then the home depot scrapper. It comes off like a hot knife through butter when wet. It falls onto the plastic ready for disposal-- Only if asbestos free. It would be a major problem it it was"hot". 10's of thousands of dollars to have it removed and disposed of.I would keep it /or encapsulate it( depending on the date it was put on) The sound absorption/ first reflection/value;the reason.

If this is on most of the ceilings one would assume it was put on when the house was built/ If you know that date you are fine. The date the house was built is also stamped inside your toilet. The back side of the tank cover/ also inside the tank near the top.