Asbestos worry

[monkeyadja]

Hello everyone

I feel like I’m in a bit of a nightmare and don’t know how to move on.

We have an air raid shelter underneath our house (access via a latch in our garden) and all went down to look at it at the weekend as part of a school project.

My son loved it down there as there was a lot to explore, and after he came up and it was all closed off again, my husband showed me some photos he’d taken. One of them showed our names having been etched by my husband into the shelter wall (using a screw driver). I am now horrified and so frightened because we don’t know what the wall in the shelter was made from and I’m scared he has unwittingly exposed my son to asbestos fibres (he was down there whilst my husband was scratching in our names).

I literally can hardly function I am so worried, any advice would be much appreciated.

You could have it tested to see if it's asbestos?
I understand why you're worried, but it's highly unlikely your son will be harmed by this. So much asbestos was used in so many things before it was found out how dangerous it could be - my school had asbestos removed during my time there, my mum had a sheet of asbestos as part of her ironing board, it can be in older artex... many people will have been in buildings with asbestos in and been potentially exposed accidentally.

I found this:

If you think you’ve been exposed to asbestos, it’s understandable to be concerned about the effects it might have on your health. But in most cases, the risk to your health from short term exposure to asbestos is very low.

Developing an asbestos-related condition is much more likely to happen if you have breathed in a considerable amount of asbestos fibres over a prolonged time.

Get an asbestos testing kit. Honestly, you are freaking out for no reason.