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Asbestos exposure concern

MEH-992
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Hi 

So i was recently exposed to asbestos when a workman cut a hole into AIB board using a multi cutter. The hole was small about the size of a coaster but I'm really scared about the effects. 

The room was a bathroom with 3 cubicles and I was in the room. 

I'm now massively freaking out about the level of asbestos I might have been exposed to and how likely it is I will develop asbestosis or cancer in the future. 

  • Offline

    Hello

    Sorry to hear about your recent experience and that it is now causing you to worry.

    This incident will have led to minimal exposure to asbestos and your risk of getting ill is extremely low. Asbestosis only occurs after many years of exposure to large amounts of asbestos. There are medical journals and research that shows someone would likely need to spend 25 years in an environment with 1 million asbestos fibres per m3 of air before they would develop asbestosis.

     

    Your risk of mesothelioma is also very low. Again the people most at risk will have spent many years working with large amounts of asbestos. Here is an extract from a medical journal looking at risk of mesothelioma amongst asbestos miners. 
    "prolonged continuous exposures to asbestos of at least 3 months and usually 10 years were required to induce mesothelioma. At the same time, these findings revealed that most individuals exposed for prolonged time to extremely high levels of amosite and or crocidolite asbestos did not develop mesothelioma. The finding that individuals with less than 3 months of continuous exposure to asbestos did not develop mesothelioma were independently supported by the observations that there were no cases of mesothelioma amoungst the Wittenoom crocidolite miners in Australia exposed for less than 3 months. It is important to appreciate that only prolonged exposures increase the risk of mesothelioma to reassure individuals who may have had sporadic exposure and who are concerned about their own risk of developing the disease." 
     

    I hope this information puts your mind at ease. 

  • Offline in reply to CH2089

    Thank you so much for replying to this post. This has been causing me some amount of anxiety and reading into information randomly online only made this worse. 

    Having clear facts posted instead of scare stories online has helped put my mind to rest. 

    Thank you 

  • Offline in reply to MEH-992

    CH2089 has given some really helpful advice which I bet others will be glad to have too. CH2089, I’m guessing you’ve studied this subject quite a bit by the sound of it?

     

    best regards to all,

    Ben

     

  • Offline in reply to Dogwillows

    Hi Ben

    I have to do asbestos awareness training at my work. The training is very basic however I have done quite a bit of research into it myself. 

    There are so many scare mongering news articles online and a lot of misinformation. I think this leads to a lot of anxiety for people who have been exposed to small amounts of asbestos. When you look into some medical research from reputable sites such as the HSE and Cancer organisations you will find that statistically asbestos related diseases are rare, even amongst people exposed to large amounts over a long period of time.  

    That's not to say we should have a blasé attitude towards it, the safest level of exposure is none at all, but some good research and statistics help put things in to perspective. 

  • Offline in reply to CH2089

    I don’t suppose I could be cheeky and ask if you’d have a look at the asbestos worry I posted on here a while back? If you could, you could search here under Dogwillows. Best wishes Ben 

  • Offline in reply to CH2089

    Hello Ch2009,

     

    wanted to thanks for the post above. I have been worrying all week over some past DIY work on my 60's property. 
     

    also the worst being spreading 6 tons of recycled hardcore rubble around my driveway and then bashing it with a petrol powered machine causing a lot of dust.
     

    I would have breathed lots of it in as foolishly didn't wear a mask. 

     

    I don't trust that the rubble was 100 percent clean even though it was from a legitimate company, as I read online rubble is easily contaminated with potential asbestos material. Not slept in days waking up worried.  
     

    reading your post helped. 
     

    I hope I am okay, and have a slight worry for the future. 
     

    thanks 

     


     

     

  • Offline in reply to CH2089

    I have saved this post and keep reading it for my sanity. Thank you so much for writing it in the first place.

    On Saturday myself, husband and two daughters (2 y/o and 7week old) were in a small room of 2x3m. We were advised to take down some ceiling to show which way the rafters were running and before I'd even thought I'd jumped on a stool and knocked out a 30cm x 30cm part of the ceiling. I absolutely hate myself. Luckily it occurred to me quite quickly and we were out of the room in 20 minutes. Zero minutes would've been best but this is the biggest mistake of my life and I am so scared for my babies as I'm sure any parent rading this would be too. Luckily we don't live at the property so we could leave and we took all the precautions we could to make sure any contamination didn't follow us. 

    I'm scared out of my mind for my little ones. We find out the testing results regarding composition and type tomorrow. I hope my heart doesn't break in two and I may well be back here to read your post again.

    Kindest regards to you all as the support and information I've read is inspiring and hope giving 

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