Hello and thank you for posting,

I am sorry to learn you are having concerns that you may have been exposed to asbestos which is causing you a lot of anxiety.

The group of people who are most at risk of lung related conditions and cancer caused by high level exposure to asbestos are those that have worked in manufacturing asbestos and those that have used asbestos in particular in construction and engineering between 1950's-1990's before strict guidelines were put in place, . 

You may have seen this already there is general information about asbestos on the GOV.UK website which may be helpful. A one-off exposure to asbestos through DIY is not thought to be a major risk of getting an asbestos-related condition.

The risk will depend on many factors such as how much asbestos a person is exposed to, over how long the exposure has been, the form of asbestos, and if they were exposed to any other chemicals.

If you are concerned, do go and have a chat with your GP as they may be able to give you advice and reassurance.

I hope this helps a little. Take care all the best

Jemma

Hi Jemma, 

Thank you for your response and the link you gave. There's a lot of scary information out there regarding asbestos exposure, of any kind. My main concern is for my family, as I don't want to unnecessarily risk their health in any way. In the meantime, I've ordered a testing kit (which I know I should've done before), to at least get a definitive answer on the materials contained.

Kind regards,

Mark

The only way to know if it's asbestos is to get it tested. Modern materials can mimic asbestos. Even if it was Artex, it's considered low risk. This material was banned around the year 2000, so if it was put up after that, it won't contain asbestos. But yeah, even if it is, it's still low risk. Some older buildings do have asbestos between the ceiling and roof/upstairs flooring (known as the plenum).

When doing ceiling work in older buildings, it's always wise to get a pro in as to give it the once over.

Unfortunately it's a mid to early 70s bungalow, with a stippled effect on the ceiling. So obviously there's a much higher chance of it being positive. A plasterer had said to me it was unlikely to be asbestos containing, but it seems obvious now that quite a few trades people are nonplussed about it!! 

They're not fussed because it is very low risk. It's industrial asbestos that is the culprit for almost all the lung issues. Whether that be from the fallout omit from factories, asbestos sheeting etc, it doesn't tend to include artex. Maybe those in the factories producing the artex ran the risk, but it's not really an end users issue. Nothing is impossible, so won't say it's risk free, but i think you can sleep soundly at night even if it did come back as positive.

Thank you. That does help!

There were two types of asbestos in use, blue and white. 
Of the two, the blue was the deadliest. 
From what I’ve read in the past, Artex contained less than 1% white asbestos. 
You’d have to be extremely unlucky to develop cancer as the result of such low levels of exposure on just one occasion. 
To put this into context - anyone who smokes regularly has a 50/50 chance of developing one of the 14 cancers caused by smoking. 
This article may provide assurance:

Short-Term Exposure Fast Facts
Light, short-term exposure rarely causes disease
A one-off exposure from do-it-yourself renovation is not a major risk

https://www.asbestos.com/exposure/short-term/ 

Thanks for the response and the link to the article. It does help to ease the anxiety over the situation knowing a bit more and having some more context! Ive also sent off 10 samples today, so at least I'll know either way. Although part of me wonders how accurate those tests you send off are, got mine from asbestos-sampling.com.

As a society, we seem to have swung from indifference to near paranoia and back again. As a teenager in the 1970s, I remember sawing up corrugated asbestos roof panels for my Dad long before PPE was thought of.

Twenty years later, an office block I was working in was evacuated because the undisturbed ceiling panels were found to contain the same material. 

Sadly, mesothelioma was fairly common in shipyard workers and ship’s engineers due to the widespread use of blue asbestos for insulation in poorly ventilated spaces well into the 1980s when I was still at sea in the Merchant Navy.