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MonkeyBoy
24-06-15, 22:56
My anxiety dates back to an exposure in the early 90's as a student. Worked as a casual labourer for a year in many different buildings in London. One particular job was clearing out a building for an electrical engineering contractor and moving stuff to a new location. After a couple of days we were asked to move an oven used for heating bearings, during the course of which the insulation got damaged. Myself and 4 other labourers would have been contaminated and breathed fibres for 3 or 4 days whilst on site.

This memory had been locked away for 20 years when an event at my parents brought it back into my thoughts. An asbestos cement lean to shed next to their house got damaged and some of the fragments fell onto their log pile. Without thinking i removed 6 or 7 pieces of broken sheeting and relocated the logs. Looking back a couple of days later i started thinking how stupid i was for touching the stuff without safety equipment.

Anyway one thing led to another and google and the anxiety set in. Recalling the earlier events and other possible exposures over the years have really gotten me down. I think i may have contamined the house, i think my parents vegetable patch is contaminated as its near the shed. The logs almost certainly are ( my mum wont let me throw them away - she has a log fetish)

I took my daughter to gym class which is in an old prefab and found myself contacting the owner because i thought the old suspended ceiling my have been asbestos insulating board and is damaged. He says its not - i don't believe him.

Went to a local museum that has lots of old gas masks on display for some coffee and sandwiches with a local history group and had a panic attack because i was in the same building as the gas masks for 3 hours.

This stuff is going round and round in my head, am i going to get Mesothelioma. Have i contaminated the house and put my kids at risk?

I spent 20 years working on the railway surveying buildings with varing amounts of asbestos. Can't say whether i disturbed any or not but ive convinced myself i did. I've also convinced myself that the basement office that i worked in for 5 years had an asbestos ceiling which got drilled though for cabling even though there is noway i can confirm it.

Watched my grandad die from Mesothelioma at 88, he worked with boilers during the war and at an oil pumping station during the 60's and 70's

My mum thinks i'm blowing things out of proporation (she has anxiety problems herself as well).

Can't think of anything else, its all consuming. Just want to be happy again, i have three lovely children and a wonderful partner.

Stop the bus i want to get off

spacebunnyx
25-06-15, 10:47
Hi,

I've had similar anxiety in the past. I grew up in the country and we had a derelict barn made of asbestos in our field. It was torn down and the garden was full of little bits of asbestos rubble. The house was also full of it and my dad took the artex off the walls himself. I was also a teacher and it was everywhere. What I'm trying to say is unfortunately asbestos is ubiquitous in the UK, but mesothelioma is rare... The vast majority of ppl who are exposed are fine. It's a few unfortunate ones who aren't and they are generally ppl who were heavily exposed - not just picking up or moving a few bits.

Space xxx

MonkeyBoy
25-06-15, 18:03
Hi Space

I know you are right just struggling to convince myself at the moment. Its not really helped with the issue at my daughters gym class which keeps bringing the whole thing back into my head. Thanks for the words of support though it helps alot just to talk about it and know someones listening.

spacebunnyx
25-06-15, 19:02
Hiya,

It's understandable you focus on this with your grandfather's illness. Like you with the gym I got myself into a lather about asbestos floor tiles in a school I was working in... Made an absolute menace of myself to management. Enjoy what you have, your children are indeed a blessing and they wouldnt want an unhappy father.

Statistically you are far more likely to die in a car crash than develop mesothelioma - not wanting to give you car phobia lol!