We are renovating at the minute and whilst the floor boards upstairs were removed, the plumber dropped something which crashed through the ceiling downstairs creating two fairly sizable holes.

Before we moved in we asked the previous owner if there is artex in the house and he replied "no" re the ceiling in question. When we moved in we had an asbestos specialist look through the house and this ceiling in question was not one that was highlighted as potentially containing artex (he had identified some other ceilings which had been skimmed over artex but this was not one of them). We also asked the builders if it looks like there would be asbestos and they said no the ceilings looked fairly new. Then one of them went ahead with sawing away at the ceiling in its rectification.

We sent a sample of the ceiling for testing as we are paranoid and lo and behold it came back positive for chrystotile. It was very much a WTH moment as everything we've been told up to that point led us to believe the ceilings were new and therefore no asbestos.

I know asbestos if left undisturbed is not harmful but now it's very much disturbed and causing much anxiety, particularly as dust continuakly falls through the gaps now in the ceiling. Our builder is suggesting that since the ceiling had already been skimmer over (no artex visible) it was not too problematic. We have also contacted the original asbestos specialist to ask why the new findings appear different.

Assuming the worst case sceanrio and there was indeed artex within the ceiling material, what are the actual potential dangers to health? Is my builder correct that since it had been skimmed over already, it is not a huge risk?