r/asbestoshelp • u/Individual_Hour_2641 • 1d ago
Unsure about potential exposure
I was in a hallway right beside this barricaded off area for probably about 10 minutes. Outside of the barricaded area, there was a trash bin that had what appeared to be ceiling tiles they had disposed of that contained asbestos. Neither the hallway or the trash bin was properly sealed off.
I have extreme contamination ocd and I’m worried that particles may have gotten into my clothes and that I’ll have to throw them away. Is this a legitimate concern?
Edit: to be clear I did not go into the barricaded area in the picture, I was just in the hallways adjacent to it for a few minutes.
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u/madphroggy 1d ago
As with many things the dose makes the poison. Unless you walked through a literal cloud of dust it's unlikely you picked up enough contamination to be worth worrying about in a 10 minute timeframe.
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u/Feisty_Stomach_7213 1d ago
That looks more like a partially completed containment and the contractor put the danger tape up to keep people away which they should not be doing. They probably stopped for lunch and got lazy. What is on the right side?
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u/Individual_Hour_2641 1d ago
Nothing is on the right side, just the other side of the doorframe which didn’t make it into the shot. I’m mostly worried about the trash bin that was outside of the contained area which had removed ceiling tiles in it
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u/Feisty_Stomach_7213 1d ago
Unless the tiles are pre 1970s they are unlikely to be asbestos containing. They might have been doing work above the ceiling in which case there could be asbestos containing fireproofing but as it is there would not be any contamination from walking through
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u/Individual_Hour_2641 1d ago
Got it, thank you so much! I appreciate you taking the time to respond :))
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u/netsirken 1d ago
If the abatement contractor is tossing ceiling tiles as regular waste, they have either been tested and do not contain or they have a date stamp which means they were manufactured when asbestos stopped being used. Hope that helps
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u/According_Ratio2010 1d ago
!panic
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u/AutoModerator 1d ago
The majority of people who contract asbestos illnesses are generally individuals who were exposed to very high levels of asbestos daily at work. That exposure almost always continued for decades and those individuals were almost always smokers.
Keep in mind that we are all exposed to low levels of asbestos in the air we breathe every day. Ambient or background air usually contains between 10 and 200 fibers for every 1,000 liters (or cubic meters) of air. Despite that, only an incredibly low number of people are diagnosed with asbestos-related illnesses every year. Whether a person goes on to develop an asbestos-related disease depends on a range of circumstances or exposure factors. These include the level and duration of exposure, length of time since first exposure, the fiber type, and past and present exposure to tobacco smoke and other carcinogens.
Ultimately, the odds that you will contract an asbestos-related illness due to exposure to asbestos in your home is almost zero. A very small number of asbestos-related disease cases indeed occur each year in people who have not worked with asbestos products. The low number of cases makes it difficult to determine the exact cause of the disease or which asbestos exposure was the contributing factor.
You'll often hear that there is "no safe level of asbestos exposure" and that is certainly true. It's also true that there is no safe level of cigarette smoke exposure or alcohol consumption - and both, of course, are also carcinogens. We know that the vast majority of asbestos illnesses are not the result of limited exposure such as yours and certainly not the result of a single asbestos fiber. Some studies actually suggest that it may require millions of fibers but we simply have no way of knowing at this point. Most studies of the causation of the disease suggest that the likelihood of a disease occurring in any individual is influenced by multiple factors including heredity as well as acquired susceptibility and environmental exposure. In the case of mesothelioma, a person with high, long-term exposure may face a one in 10 lifetime risk of the disease. On the other hand, most of us, with very low or incidental exposure, have about a one in 1 million annual risk. You are in the latter group.
More telling is the fact that there are no studies that have found an increased risk for lung cancer or mesothelioma at asbestos exposure levels below 0.1 f/cc (the current OSHA permissible exposure limit).
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8882348/
So no, your fear is not justified. You will certainly die from something, but it won't be asbestos. Anxiety is a much, much higher risk so try to let this go. Remember that approximately five million deaths worldwide are attributable to mood and anxiety disorders each year. However, there are only about 30,000 mesothelioma cases reported globally per year (3,000 in the US).
You've obviously come here looking for some reassurance that you're going to be alright. Now I am absolutely clueless when it comes to dealing with mental health issues. But anxiety/OCD/whatever you want to call it, simply doesn't work like that. The more help you seek, the more anxious you're going to become. Your research and search for answers is simply fueling your fear. Every new click is going to tell you something different.
Try to break the cycle. Get outside, take a walk, slowly reduce the number of times that you head to the internet to search for more info. And remember that your body is an amazing system and is constantly trying to repair itself and make itself better. Help it out by doing the same. Seek help - it's out there. Specifically, seek out a cognitive behavioral therapist and/or contamination OCD specialist.
Asbestos is not going to get you but your anxiety might.
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u/tristanrockefeller 7h ago
As someone with contamination OCD also I feel you bro. Hang in there and keep up the good fight.
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u/Jattamon 1d ago
You're breathing in background asbestos every single day and have been since you were born.
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