Wikipedia has a picture (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Jussieu_d%C3%A9samient%C3%...) of the facility during asbestos removal. Given that they've taken out everything but the metal frame of the building, I doubt many students were going to class in the building as they removed it.
Common sense? The dangers of asbestos were well known in 1997 (hence its removal!), it's a developed nation that enforces protective measures for workers, etc.
Losing 22 workers in France in the 1990s/2000s on a single asbestos removal project is extremely unlikely.
Since 1959 in an entire campus, not one building. There'd be many, many more students passing through over five decades than there would be construction workers in a 10 year cleanup effort.
