All of the research I've done seems to be centered around people who were exposed to it every day for years… this seems to me to be short-term acute exposure. How much danger are we now in? my husband is convinced we've signed our death warrants. Thoughts?
Asbestos exposure becomes a health concern when high concentrations of asbestos fibers are inhaled over a long time period. People who become ill from asbestos are almost always those who are exposed on a day-to-day basis in a job where they work directly with the material. as a person's exposure to fibers increases, either by breathing more fibers or by breathing fibers for a longer time, that person's risk of disease also increases. Disease is very unlikely to result from a single, high-level exposure, or from a short period of exposure to lower levels.
It is really hard to know and I have no idea if 6% is considered a lot or not, as that is not information we are interested in. I would imagine researching this on the internet would be difficult as many attorneys are interested in mesothelioma cases so it probably saturates it and of course, the cases they are interest in involve repeated exposure.
One of the hospitals I work for is near the Port of Los Angeles where we get cases of mesothelioma periodically as many of the dockworkers live there. one of the oncologists explained to me that it only takes a single exposure to asbestos to get mesothelioma. however, you have to keep in mind there are several variables such as how much asbestos you were exposed to, how long you were exposed to it, how fine were the particles, etc, and of course everyone’s body reacts to things differently.
The only thing I can tell you for certain is that mesothelioma takes about 25 years to manifest, so it will be awhile before you know. Unfortunately even if you did know little could be done, as we have no way of stopping it and no effective treatment for it. as the same oncologist told me, rats do not live 25 years, so research is difficult.
The only suggestions I have for you is to do your best to avoid situations that may irate your lungs, pretend you have asthma. I don’t know if this will help, but it can’t hurt. You may also consider having your house professionally cleaned. I don’t know if it was empty at the time you did the work, if you have carpet, etc., but if there were things in the home that can trap asbestos particles it may still be there. I don’t mean to alarm you, but I have seen cases of women who died from mesothelioma and their only known exposure to asbestos was from the clothes of their husbands and boyfriends. And don’t do anymore home improvements without checking for asbestos first, especially the floors and walls. Good luck.
Get on antioxidants.
Ask me more info about it to compare supplements that are pure junk claiming to be antioxidants and ones that do work. Here is a google video http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=… your body can get rid of toxins and prevent cancer.
It is not a death warrant and besides, we are so exposed to unseen toxins that we can't smell in our own homes that we are all sitting ducks, so we must defend ourselves from the inside to prevent what is happening to us on the outside.
Its all about how to thrive on a toxic planet.
I have plenty of educational info on that and prevention is the key by supplying the body with what it needs to detoxify, defend and repair itself on a cellular level.
My grandfather worked with asbestos for YEARS! they didn't even know it was bad for you back then. He used to rip bags of it open, mix it up and use it in his industry.
Needless to say, he is currently 87 years old and has not suffered any ill-effects of asbestos. The effects come from LONG term exposure, and even then, it's possible to come out unharmed (i.e. my grandfather).
It's like saying that because you smoked one cigarette, you just signed a death warrand for lung cancer. It was a mistake, but I'm sure not a deadly one. 
Keep your head up.
How old are the two of you?
The time between exposure and the cancer developing is often in the decades, like 30-50 years. so … really, just live and don't worry about it. It's not as if you can get your lungs vacuumed out.
Did you wear masks? How could you not think about asbestos?
I think you will be okay. just don't make a business of it.
You'll be fine. And you're right…it would take years of exposure.
Hi,
When I removed asbestos, I would put up 6 mil plastic, and cover all the floors with two layers, then cover the walls with two layers, and then tape the walls to the floors, and then wet the asbestos containing material with a substance that glues the fibers together.
This is following the best known tequnics, and with a fairly unlimited budget at the company I worked for. Then the outer layer of plastic was removed and put into a large bag, and disposed of, the room cleaned, and tested for airborn asbestos, then the second wall of plastic was removed.
In your case, I hope that you at least protected your carpet and furniture.
It is possible that over the years asbestos has been falling on your carpet, and the vacuum cleaner has been grinding it up into smaller particals, so that both are well contaminated by now.
De-contamination? well that would require using a HEPA filter to vacuum the carpets and furniture, and likely would not get more than 50% of any fibers out of the cloth. You can never be sure to remove it all.
So what is your exposure?
When I did asbestos removals with the best techniques, and monitored the asbestos in the air, we had very low amounts of asbestos per cubic foot, and normally we could have done this without a mask and not been exposed to over the EPA guidlines of asbestos exposure, but because we always did the best guidlines, everyone was protected with a 1/2 facepiece mask, so they have a 50 times protections level or greater.
What does that mean? well the permissable exposure level for asbestos in someplace like a movie theater is something like 0.1 fibers per CC of air. If you are wearing a 1/2 face respirator with HEPA filters, it will protect you up to 50 times that much airbone asbestos in the air, or 5 fibers per cubic centimeter of air. A full face air mask, covering your eyes with a faceshield is 100 times the PEL, or 10 fibers per CC of air.
They test the air with a vaccuum pump that pulls 10 cc's of air per minute for about 100 minutes, through a fiber catching screen. this screen is placed on a glass microscope slide, and the screen disolved with a chemical, leaving the asbestos behind. THey count the number of fibers, and then say there are say 5 fibers in a certain area of the pad, thus 5,000 went through the media in 100 minutes, while 1,000 cc's of air went throuh the media, thus the air was contaminated with 5 fibers per cc of air, or 50 times the personal exposure limit.
The personal exposure limit is a OSHA regulation, and if you are exposing employees to over that limit, you need to give them personal protection, such as a HEPA filter mask.
What does it really mean?
You where exposed to a amount of asbestos on the day of removal over the personal exposure limit. Also the heater air ducts absorbed a certain amount of air through them over the past 10 years from falling asbestos from the ceiling. And the vaccum cleaner and carpets also have a lot of asbestos in them (like 2 ounces of the finely chopped up fibers).
Each time you vacuum your floors, you will stir up the asbestos in the carpets again. When you replace your carpet, also replace the vacuum, because one will expose the other to asbestos.
Will you catch cancer from removing one ceiling without the proper controls? Highly unlikely.
How much where you exposed to? That is tough to tell without replicating the same conditions with air monitoring equipment in place. Want to do this again, so we can monitor it? Probably not.
IF you kept the material wet, and did not use sandpaper, you should be fine, the exposure is lessened by keeping it wet. Sanding the ceiling with sandpaper did not help things, it grinds up the asbestos into finer particals.
Are you still at risk?
Yes.
They probably glued down your floor tile with asbestos glue, the floor is probably between 25 and 55% asbestos as well, keep a layer of wax on it, and you will be fine, it is difficult to get asbestos out of hard floor tiles.
You probably also have 5% – 10% asbestos in the joint compound in the wallboard on your house. When you drill a hole in the wall, using a HEPA vaccuum will pick up all the fibers and control the asbestos exposure. (most of the fibers will not be asbestos.).
Yes there are hundreds of people that installed asbestos and live 30 – 50 years without developing any problems. You are probably more at risk from the lead in your house than the asbestos that protected it from bruning down.
Best of luck to you.
We scraped our popcorn ceiling not even considering asbestos. It came back at 6%. Now what?
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