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Hi! new and a question
My family recently moved into my parents house, temporarily while we are awaiting to move overseas.
My parents were in the middle of a remodel. I am feeling like the worst parent ever. I have 2 yr old twins. Yesterday when I brought the boys home from daycare, I walked into the house and it was full of dust. We stayed for about 10 minutes while I set up fans and tried to frantically clean and then I decided we should leave while the house airs out. I took them out for an hour or so hoping the house would ventilate. My parents were having their popcorn ceilings removed and new flooring and drywall, and other things. They had hired a contractor.
After spending the hour out, it occurred to me that this dust could be dangerous and I started doing research on the webz. I discovered that their home could easily have asbestos! Their home was built in 1965 and most the remodeling was being done on original features. I am so distraught. The contractor didn't tell them anything about asbestos. The ceilings were done 1 day before we moved in there and it was still dusty when we arrived. We slept there for a couple weeks post ceiling dust and all I did was put an air purifier in the room when we slept. I am so terrified I endagered my children. My family is losing sleep and we are finding another place to stay in the meantime.
There is nothing I can do now right? We are considering getting some of the items tested but I think it's too late and very highly likely that there is asbestos. We found packaging for the old flooring and I looked it up and it is the brand known for asbestos (they went out of business for it).
I plan to take my children to the doctor and explain to see if they should be tested for anything, but a few people I talked with insist i am nuts.
Does anyone here know anything about all this? I did my web search and just ended up losing sleep for weeks. I feel like this is something that I will be beating myself up over for our entire lives.
Re: Hi! new and a question
I think the main concern is the popcorn ceiling since that produced lots of dust, right? The flooring typically doesn't generate much dust. I don't think there is much you can do at this point, but I wouldn't lose a ton of sleep. I think the biggest risk is to the contractors that are scraping asbestos ceilings for years without proper protection.
Do you know for sure that the ceiling had asbestos? I say this as a fellow asbestos nut. When we bought our home, the inspector pointed out the asbestos insulation around the ductwork. I freaked and had the entire house tested with air samples taken at every vent before and after the asbestos insulation was secured. You can pay to have the air quality tested in the house - it cost us about $350 and took about an hour. It put my mind at ease, and I'd recommend you do it so that you know for sure. Maybe there isn't even a reason to worry?
Hey, I'm new as well. This is a good question and I was in a similar situation with my first home renovation. After I had demo'd practically the entire house I was alerted by a This Old House episode that plaster may contain asbestos. Needless to say, I was freaked out since I was already living in a demo'd pig pen and although I used a mask for the work, if there was asbestos present, I'd be swimming in it. I ended up getting the plaster and attic insulation tested and it came back clean (the house was 100 years old, so most asbestos based home products weren't around then anyway).
My opinion on your situation, and this is just my two cents, is that you and your kids are fine. The people that develop mesothelioma and other asbestos or breathing related issues are folks that spent good chunks of their lives or careers in asbestos contaminated areas. I wouldn't worry about a brief exposure.
I've never heard of anyone contracting an asbestos-related disease from a couple weeks of sleeping in a house being remodeled. Also, the products you mentioned (ceilings, floorings, drywall), if they contained any asbestos at all, likely contained chrysotile fibers. There is a debate in the scientific community as to whether chrysotile can even cause mesothelioma. Regarding the flooring tile company, many companies manufactured both asbestos-containing and non-asbestos products simultaneously.
Asbestos diseases typically have a 20-50 year latency period before evidence of disease begins to show itself. Honestly, though, I'd simply mention to the contractor that you're concerned about asbestos in this age of a home and see what they say. Contractors don't want to risk harm to themselves and their workers so I would think they would have taken appropriate precautions for testing.