Hi I was on another site when I saw this.I suffer with anxiety to after my husband unknowingly took down our asbestos shed .I washed the clothes in our washing machine and the children were outside playing whilst it was done.Ever since then ...which was afew years  ago I have been paranoid about asbestos.in fact it was always on my mind.I've had the same guy out to check inside my house for asbestos 3 times...even though there was none.Luckily he was a lovely guy and humoured me and I joked I was probably his most paranoid customer...which he cheekily agreed to.My dad died recently unexpectedly ( not asbestos or coronavirus related ) and Since coronavirus and the goings on of many people losing their lives.The asbestos thing has really been put into perspective for me ( also with the help of taking high strength St. John's wort tablets off Amazon) I think about how many people have died from coronavirus ( this was easy to find out as we are always told the figures, but please don't move onto worrying about this next) Asbestos deaths are approx 1 in 900 people which equates to about 0.10% of population.really low and this is mainly in people who have worked with it all their lives , true people can have issues that don't but this sends the statistics down even lower.I know googling is the worst thing to do and many are American sites .They have to pay for hospital treatment in America so it doesn't surprise me sites like to sccaremonger.You did the right thing spraying down and wearing a mask .But even if you had t done that is highly unlikely that anything will come of it.I have done loads of research I assure you probrably can't get a more paranoid mummy than me lol.I think you have more chance of getting run over....I have probably googled all the chances of dying from things to compare it with.If you still have the boards you will need some one to remove them now and get rid of the clothes double bag them if they are in house or if outside leave them until someone can take away.These people work with it all the time so they must always have suits otherwise they'd always be exposed.But please try not to worry seen plenty of forums when countless people do the same.We are a total diy nation and asbestos is in loads of homes we aren't all dropping like flies.I know you see asbestos and see red exactly what I was like.But  from a risk assessment point of view it's extremely unlikely you have been affected by it.It likes to get to us worriers and worrying is more likely to cause damage I assure you.Take a deep breath.Rates of asbestosis are going down because people are aware of its potential dangers, where back in the day no one knew hence they continued to work with it.Hence the majority is through many years of workspace exposure.You will be ok!

Hi I see this is a while ago but very relevant to what I have been through of late walking my young children near where a cement board roof has been taken down and some bits have been broken near a barn we have bought for conversion which has lost a roof panel of late and the adjacent barn someone else is buying which has lost some of its roof down recently also it almost collapsed in the storms a while ago I think then lost a panel last week. 
 

snyway I walked my children past there last week as that is where we are hoping to build and live and have since freaked out gone into depression/ on tablets/ cannot cope with the thought of them breathing in asbestos. I cannot function. Reading this has given me some hope obviously they weren't drilling/ jumping on anything and I moved as quick as I could away but my brains in overdrive 

Hi Sorry to hear you are worried.I've been reading my anxiety book recently and it says people who are scared tend to " catastrophise" a situation imagining the worst possible scenario.if it is Corrugated asbestos roof tile( if it even contained any asbestos ) is only about 10 percent asbestos of which is white asbestos (chrysotile) Yes I know 10 percent too much but in the grand scheme of asbestos this is quite low and is considered to be a low risk product on the scale( Asbestos pipe lagging being one of the highest offenders  on the scale and a worse type of asbestos crocodolite or blue asbestos) Don't worry you only walked past .Corrogated roof  cement roof tile is bound within a matrix, so in other words even when it is broken it will not be as friable as other types and there will be limited fibres because they are more stuck fast to the cement.Even if you happened to have been walking past at the time it happened asbestos fibres are so light they stay up in the air a long time before they fall ( about 2 days in a room if you were inside) So knowing this it is extra unlikely you or the kids got any fibres as they were almost certainly carried off in the air before you even got there.Even if worst case scenario you did crysotile fibres can often be expelled naturally from the body through sneezing or coughing, so are much less likely to cause issues down the line.The blue or brown asbestos (that causes most of the issues )which are shaped differently so stick in the lungs easier a bit more  like a hook shape.I don't think farmers or people who ride horses hare at risk of asbestosis.And I can guarantee you I've seen several stable roofs and a few farms over the years with broken roofs.One being my child's horse riding party .All the girls having fun as they should enjoying their first horse riding session.And instead of engaging and watching them going round.I was watching the bloody roof trying to assess the damage risk lol.Please don't worry I assure you you will all be ok.Think of all those horsey people over the county's  in the stable yard.Oblivious to a broken asbestos roof.Too many to equate to only 0.10% of the population all those years ago from unknown exposures.At least we know now so that 0.10% of people is getting even less as the years go on.Asbestos is in the air we breathe can't get away from it because of years of previous use.However it's a tiny amount .We have all breathed it oblivious or not.Reality is it's dose related and I assure you , you have nothing to worry about.However if you are still concerned and still have bits laying round etc that you need to sort out ring up an asbestos specialist for some advise about clearing up etc.I've rang many for advise over the years.I'd be their best and worst customer at the same time.lol

Good luck x

Hi Sorry to hear you are worried.I've been reading my anxiety book recently and it says people who are scared tend to " catastrophise" a situation imagining the worst possible scenario.if it is Corrugated asbestos roof tile( if it even contained any asbestos ) is only about 10 percent asbestos of which is white asbestos (chrysotile) Yes I know 10 percent too much but in the grand scheme of asbestos this is quite low and is considered to be a low risk product on the scale( Asbestos pipe lagging being one of the highest offenders  on the scale and a worse type of asbestos crocodolite or blue asbestos) Don't worry you only walked past .Corrogated roof  cement roof tile is bound within a matrix, so in other words even when it is broken it will not be as friable as other types and there will be limited fibres because they are more stuck fast to the cement.Even if you happened to have been walking past at the time it happened asbestos fibres are so light they stay up in the air a long time before they fall ( about 2 days in a room if you were inside) So knowing this it is extra unlikely you or the kids got any fibres as they were almost certainly carried off in the air before you even got there.Even if worst case scenario you did crysotile fibres can often be expelled naturally from the body through sneezing or coughing, so are much less likely to cause issues down the line.The blue or brown asbestos (that causes most of the issues )which are shaped differently so stick in the lungs easier a bit more  like a hook shape.I don't think farmers or people who ride horses hare at risk of asbestosis.And I can guarantee you I've seen several stable roofs and a few farms over the years with broken roofs.One being my child's horse riding party .All the girls having fun as they should enjoying their first horse riding session.And instead of engaging and watching them going round.I was watching the bloody roof trying to assess the damage risk lol.Please don't worry I assure you you will all be ok.Think of all those horsey people over the county's  in the stable yard.Oblivious to a broken asbestos roof.Too many to equate to only 0.10% of the population all those years ago from unknown exposures.At least we know now so that 0.10% of people is getting even less as the years go on.Asbestos is in the air we breathe can't get away from it because of years of previous use.However it's a tiny amount .We have all breathed it oblivious or not.Reality is it's dose related and I assure you , you have nothing to worry about.However if you are still concerned and still have bits laying round etc that you need to sort out ring up an asbestos specialist for some advise about clearing up etc.I've rang many for advise over the years.I'd be their best and worst customer at the same time.lol

Good luck x

Thankyou so much for your words they mean more than you'll ever know. Here I am at 2.41 in the morning awake panicking and this has made me feel so so much better. I have been told by the doctors I catastrophise and I hope with cbt and hypnotherapy I'll stop doing this and move forward. I'm going to screenshot your reply and keep this close when I am anxious about this exposure that may never have happened and may not cause an issue if it did. It was the corrugated roof cement boards The ones on industrial units etc i note my husband now works under daily!. I will be getting an aspestos company to remove and do air checks once the land is signed over and i hope I can one day move forward with this now obsession. I can now see asbestos everywhere I look, I would never have known I'm sure i used to pick holes in my old artex wall and throw balls on to corrugated roofs of sheds! I would never have thought about this prior so although I'm glad I'm educated I kind of wish I'd never heard the word asbestos before!thankyou again  

Hi .I totally understand feeling asbestos everywhere my husband is decorating and he's sanding the doors down that previously had a brown Bakelite handle on it .Even though the handle has gone the sanding has sent me into a panick as the handle was once there.It's rather irrational really.I've started taking fluexotine from my doctor which has helped a lot but I may move up to 40 mg .I've just found this reall good book I'm reading How to tell anxiety to sod off 40 ways to get your life back.I've just started but it's quite funny and I can see me in it with the scenarios.it's by James withey.My sister is training to be a hypnotherapist for cbt so she is going to give me some treatment.See the pattern we see it everywhere.That is a symptom of us over catastrosising and being irrational.I wander what the odds of 2 people meeting on online with a fear of getting an asbestos disease and actually getting it lol.Surely we can be sure we are going to win the lottery jackpot now to! 
Hope your soon feeling much better x

That's good I hope it helps you, my friend is on that meds and says it helps. I wonder if I am worse as I am day 5 now of citrapram and it can induce worse anxiety and panic initially. I have my first hypno session Thursday so I will see if that helps, good luck to you. I am still obsessing over this potential exposure I've read every article I can find online and tried to reassure myself this would have been a small exposure if an exposure at all in the open air but it's the guilt and the unknown that is all consuming to my children. I have no concerns over myself, my husband the architect, family members that have walked down there however so I am trying to reassure myself this is my mummy protection instinct not a real threat. Plus there's no actual benefit to my hysteria for years and years for something that may never come, One of us may get run over by a bus tomorrow (I actually did as a teenager lol) and we need to enjoy every precious day! I'm literally killing my self with anxiety which helps no one! I have read all the facts now and it seems a small exposure would be something like 2-3 months! A big one being high exposure over years and years so anything we have encountered is so unlikely to cause harm. The small exposures that caused anything have been things like 9/11 etc so think dust so thick you're surrounded with it. I have struggled with ocd since my son was born so I'm trying to attribute this to that..I used to bin a whole tub of milk powder if I left the lid open etc because the germs might have gotten in. I don't let my kids play in our back garden as that's where the dogs poo even though I pick it up and they are wormed..just incase they touched mud with germs and go blind. These are irrational fears! 
I have read one in ten only get lung problems that have worked with aspestos for years and years and it is a probability like 1 in a million for a one off exposure. I literally feel like killing myself (I won't don't worry) but I know this is my fear - this asbestos fear is the worst you can get as there is such a long incubation period and the unknown. I keep seeing my children in hospital beds (again my fear) much more likely my husband who's been there much more etc. 
you're right I am also convinced I will win then lottery and never do so maybe I am just completely crayyyzaay!!

thanks for writing back to me it's really hard to speak to anyone - my dad said today I'm more likely to get abducted by aliens. My husband can't grasp how worried I am. Other family members were there the day I am concerned about and have zero concerns so I need to try and think like that! 

I hope you are doing ok. Look after yourself x

I think it is mummy fear and protection because I only have fears for my children to .Not bothered about myself.Also I have  done similar things with binning "contaminated" things.I try to imagine what other people do and given the lifestyles of other people with doing decorating etc.How many skips we see on a daily basis in someone's drive .How many old houses need redecorating.As a diy nation from that point of view we should all get asbestosis.But only a tiny percentage in reality it's 4 % of lung cancer patients apparently and 0.10 % of population.So really tiny .

And that's with workmen obliviously going to work for years ( and imagine how many there would have been) going into big clouds of it in that static, so the statistic of a minute amount would  be practically non negotiable x

Sorry for another post.I think it would be a good idea for you also to ring up an asbestos company and they can give you some information and alay your fears .Ring a few if you like , I've done that before for advice.They will tell you it's small fry.I found some asbestos in my garden from my shed and my daughter even picked it up and played with it.Corrugated roof.He said it's so bound in a matrix and not to worry about it.I think she even came in for food after and didn't wash her hands( she didn't tell me until next day) and my mum recognised it to be asbestos as surprise suprise it was on my garage roof as a kid .Used to smoke in the garage with my friends all the time as a teenager .Broken roof in there to .Also some other bits I found a few years later in my garden after my husband unknowingly took down shed.I bagged up and put in bag for them to take away and they just took the bag and literally threw it onto back of their veichle.Obviously they weren't that bothered about it!x

Yeh definitely is mums will always worry I guess. My husband and dad think I'm being so silly so trying to hold on to that and enjoy the day today! Happy Mother's Day to you and thanks for your support.. your post got edited by the moderator lol so not sure if I missed anything but I really appreciate your positivity snd the statistics keeping me sane! Xx

Happy Mother's Day to you to.I was giving you my email address so you could email me if you ever get anxious about it but apparently that's not allowed .So have o be on here instead.

Enjoy rest of your day.

Heather x

Oh that's such a shame, you've really helped me in a dark time so I would have really appreciated that and someone who's been through similar and similar worries x

Hello worried24242 and beetlegeist, 

Although to protect your privacy on a public forum, you cannot exchange email addresses here, I wanted to let you know that we do offer private messaging on Cancer Chat. 

I hope this helps! 

Lucie, Cancer Chat Moderator