About 2 years ago, during planning work to my current house I became aware that I was likely exposed to asbestos in my old pre war built house. I lived there for approx 10 years and when I first moved in a lot of work was needed on the place. The first exposure I had was chiseling off some artex in a hallway which I did over several days and led to a lot of dust. I could never remove it all so it remained damaged for the rest of the time we lived there, just painted over. I queried this at the time with my much older (and I believed at the time wiser, now ex) husband but he dismissed my concerns. In hindsight I know he did this as he was blase and didn't want to pay for testing or removal rather than having any actual knowledge in the subject.
The latter came when we had the main bedroom artex ceiling removed. A workman did the actual work but again this was done on the cheap. it created a ridiculous amount of dust that hung around for a long time and was next to impossible to clean up. (I do not think the guy realised it was artex or didn't care about the risk maybe. It was certainly never mentioned.)
Shortly afterwards I realised that if the ceiling was brought down then whatever insulation was on top must have been too. I have no idea what this was or even that there definately was any and this led me to worry it could have been asbestos which I understand is the most dangerous kind when used in this way because it is essentially loose and contaminates everything.
I became concerned that I was therefore chronically exposed to asbestos,possibly the worst kind, over many weeks/months (possibly longer as dust got in all rooms and on furnishings etc.) And was extremely concerned about my risks of developing illness now (about 12 years on) or in the future as a result.
I was also worried about some work I did filing in an old basement as it had old pipes overhead with crumbling insulation on them that kept falling in my hair. This place I worked in for many hours approx one say a week for months.
I have become more concerned again as i am aware that my kids still use some things that were in that house, which may potentially be contaminated with asbestos. I guess the question is how realistic is this? Would others be concerned or do anything about it?
