Worries again- anyone there to help!

[Cbear83]

Having huge health anxiety this chritsmas.
I have satisfied my worried on the asbestos in bathroom and walls since talking
To builder.

I am now worried about a job we did in 2012 when we ripped up into little pieces an old vinyl sheet flooring. We were unaware of the risks and my husnad chipped away at it and pulled it up in bits- and 3x3 meter room.

After now looking it is very probable it was asbestos flooring. I am panicking again now about exposure and dying from this down to a few diy jobs :(

My husband says it is a dose related disease and one time exposure Are very low risk.
I just think that is it - me done all because of my dream cottage!
I had a chest x ray that was clear but not
Sure it will show after 3 years.

Anyone with any thoughts or knowledge please help- my husband is running out of patience :(

[Pamplemousse]

Hi again :)

Firstly, I'm pleased to see that you've resolved the worries you had in your previous thread with your builder. :yesyes:

I had those tiles in my kitchen before it was refurbished; given their nature, I'd have thought that like asbestos cement, if there were fibres in the tile (I expect they'd be added for mechanical strength and perhaps a little fireproofing) that they'd be well bound into the vinyl binder material.

Mindful of the discussion we had privately, I spent a *lot* of time on the Internet last night looking stuff up about white and brown asbestos in the home and in schools, oddly enough (and it would seem my old school was one such place, being a late 1950's building - perhaps that's why they removed the panels off the front before they demolished it!).

It seems that even brown asbestos - such as that used in AIB (Asbestos Insulating Board) can be removed by unlicensed contractors within limits, that limit being one hour exposure per person per week (HSE guidelines). Sadly, this material demolishes (no pun intended) the belief that only white asbestos materials are found in the home :sad:

One thing a handout published by a Cambridge college (regarding potential exposure in one of their buildings) was most illuminating: that was the potential risks of combining smoking with asbestos exposure. It noted that the combination of smoking and asbestos exposure presented a risk far greater than the sum - even the product - of being a non-smoker exposed to it, or being a smoker not exposed to it.

Another person posting on another board was a licenced removal contractor who likened the chances of getting mesothelioma from a one-off exposure as playing Russian Roulette with a revolver with 100,000 chambers in it. Sure, you might be unlucky, but it is far more likely you won't.

I think this is very much the case with you: even if you have been exposed, your chances of actually developing anything are incredibly small because, as your husband says, it tends to be cumulative - you're not working with it on a frequent basis. I'd like to say "drop me a line in forty years time and tell me that after all that worry back in 2015, that you're perfectly okay" but I suspect that in my case, you'd need a Ouija board, not e-mail.

Unfortunately, I can also understand why your husband's patience is wearing a bit thin: people who don't suffer from MH issues like us just cannot get their heads around the illogical behaviour of their loved ones (and that is what it is) - the need for reassurance, the need to research to find something that either supports their point or reassures them that they have nothing to worry about.

Been there, done that, got the DVD and the t-shirt.

I have family that work for the NHS: one does find my behaviour baffling, the other understands it and the third thinks I'd make a good subject for a research paper :wink:

[Fishmanpa]

This is more about your irrational fears than it is your cottage. Once you find a way to reassure yourself with the flooring, it will be the roofing, or the foundation, or something else will come up that will put you right back in the anxiety blender again. IMO, even if they gutted the entire building and rebuilt from scratch, you would still have this fear.

To be honest, the way this is falling out, your illness will eventually have you moving out of your dream cottage. If your husband is losing patience now, it will only get thinner the more you fixate on this fear.

I responded to an earlier thread on this and said essentially no amount of reassurance or expertise will alleviate your fears. With professional help and some inner fortitude, you can help yourself. I hope you do this as it would be sad to lose the dream you and husband worked so hard to make real.

Positive thoughts