Sawdust / MDF fibreboard dust

[wat143]

Hello
I have severe anxiety which has been getting worse lately. I have an appointment next week to speak to someone. I am struggling to cope with a recent event, and I am not sure how much of a true 'issue' this is because of my anxiety. My parents and my husband both say I have nothing to worry about, but they have not spent the time on Google that I have researching this!

This week, we had new carpets fitted to the upstairs of our house. 3 of the internal doors didn't fit so the carpet fitters offered to cut them down. I wasn't here, and my husband agreed to it. They used a power tool to cut the bottom of 3 doors whilst they were still hanging in the house.
When I came home, I noticed dust in our bathroom (e.g. on the toilet, in the shower), and on the walls, skirtings and other places like the stairs handrail. It was orange so definitely where they cut the doors. It's a super fine dust as well - the worst type. I immediately started panicking, as I know that sawdust and MDF dust is carcinogenic. Our doors are the standard cheap 'hollow' doors constructed of pine and fibreboard (MDF) front/back.

I cleaned up the dust as best as I can wearing a mask and changed our bed etc. My mum came over on the first day and she said there wasn't much dust left, but I had already cleaned the worst. However it will all be under the carpet. I called the carpet men who apologised they didn't explain about the dust. They said the underlay was down but not the carpet, they used an off-cut underneath the door, and they cleaned up with a dustpan before they laid the carpet. But he said it's a 'messy business'.

I have had an awful week just thinking about all this dust that is now over everything in my home. It must be in every crack (e.g. plug sockets, screws) and it's never going to go away. Furthermore the dustpan won't have been nearly enough to clean up all the fine dust that is all over the underlay no doubt. Every time I walk on the new carpet I must be stirring the dust underneath, and it can come through the carpet and we will be breathing the fine fibres. Every time I walk anywhere it could blow some out of a crack where I haven't cleaned. It says online that fibreboard fibres are very small and can go deep into your lungs - they also contain formaldehyde.
When I come home and come to the front door it feels me with anxiety to come into the house. Also they left the off-cuts with us that I think they used. They are now in the shed ready to throw away but before that they were in our house and conservatory and everything feels contaminated with harmful dust from floor to ceiling.

I just don't know what to do - shall I get the carpets replaced again at a great cost? Would you be concerned about this?

Please help :(

[Fishmanpa]

With all due respect, you're being extremely irrational. We're exposed to much worse in our everyday lives than this. Heck, I'm on the East Coast of the US and we've been dealing with smoke from the wildfires in Canada. There have been days where there was a haze looking across the street for goodness sakes. Staying outside for an extended periods of time caused respiratory symptoms. Its gone. We're fine and have no worries. This is no different :shrug:

FMP

[MrLurcher]

Hiya, I went through this panic around 10 years ago when renovating our first cottage.

I needed to repair some parts of the floor after getting the house rewired. The electrician did a mess of the flooring, and we should have charged him for unnecessary damage as he left some of the floor in a dangerous state - but that;s another story.

Anyway, being young and naive I didn't really know what I was doing, so I bought a load of thick MDF and set about cutting sections to repair the flooring. I used an electric saw in a small room and there was dust everywhere, and lots of it - I brushed up like half a football ball's worth of dust. So I think I exposed myself to a lot of fibres and carcinogenic stuff unfortunately, and like you, I panicked for weeks afterwards. After this I became a lot more savvy when it came to DIY and house renovation/works.

As far as I'm aware, I don't think they use MDF in hollow doors? I think it's a form of fibre/particleboard and that's nowhere near as bad as MDF.

But even so, the amount of dust created by cutting a few doors will be minimal, and nothing to worry about. Just hoover and clean as much as you can, empty the bag, clean the hoover and just try and forget about it as best you can. I understand that it's worrying, trust me I've been there, but the danger from a little bit of dust is tiny.

[wat143]

Thank you both very much.
@Fishmanpa I'm so sorry to hear of your countries troubles, and I have seen awful news reports on it. It's terrible what we are doing to our planet - I hope you are staying safe. I know I am being irrational, which is why I am now seeking help. Unfortunately it's just the way my mind works and I spiral. I realise when I'm in a normal state there are far worse things going on in the world and to others, but my brain makes me forget these realities sometimes. Thank you for your help, I really do appreciate the reminder of reality.
@MrLurcher a bit that's chipped off looks like fibreboard of some sort - I thought it's the same construction as MDF but maybe it is different. My husband did say it doesn't look like MDF. I have also cut some MDF before, a couple of months ago, which I believe is how the irrational fear has started (too much googling afterwards!).