Asbestos in chimney?

[dandeliondaisy]

Hi, I'm having a nightmare/freak out (!) and unsure whether it is founded or not. We are having our chimney repointed at the moment and the builder did not realise the chimney was open onto our lounge via a (very old and unusable 1997 fitted) gas fire! The flue was uncapped and all the rubble/dust/rocks whooshed straight into our lounge which I cleaned up (mounds of it!!) I didn't think anything of it until he mentioned that the other chimney which had been capped, was done so with asbestos. Now I am totally paranoid that there could have been asbestos in the rubble I cleaned up, it looked like cement and rocks, hard bit of stone and debris. I can't get it out my head. My young children were in the room whilst I cleaned it up too. I have since asked the roofer whether there was asbestos in the chimney leading down to our lounge gas fireplace and he said definitely not. How can he be sure? Am I at a very high risk if it DID contain asbestos? Please answer honestly and truthfully, going out of my mind with worry. Thank you

Trust the builder. He will know what asbestos looks like and will know if he was at risk doing the job.
I worked in the building trade for many years and just about everyone was aware of asbestos and the risks it holds.

Thank you so much for your reply. I hadn't really considered that the builder himself wouldn't have wanted to work directly with asbestos when hacking the old bits of cement off the chimney. I have added a pic. Do you think this looks safe or asbestos? It was very very crumbly and fell apart in my hands, I've no idea what I'm looking for/

@dandeliondaisy I am not an expert but that does not look like asbestos to me.
I suggest that you should stop worrying as you are safe.

Extremely unlikely that contains asbestos, but if you are worrying you can have it tested.
The capping the builder referred to is likely to be a board, like cement board. It was commonly used in building for a long time.
Asbestos fibres were also added to bitumen when laying wood floors, plaster, artex, and very occasionally cement. This was usually tiny amounts. There is a risk if its disturbed but it is extremely low.
The boards are another matter, they can have much higher concentrations of a different grade of asbestos and are best left undisturbed unless necessary.

@OldJohn thank you so much for your reassurance. I appreciate that so much.

@OttersAreMySpiritAnimal thank you so so for your insight and help. I am so utterly clueless which adds to the levels of worry! The flue cap the roofer mentioned (on the other chimney) is closed off and boarded up definitely had asbestos. We had this professionally removed even though chimney not used etc, we were having it repointed so wanted to be safe. I am concerned the chimney that is open into our lounge that had no cap on it, somehow has asbestos within the rubble that was released down the chimney into the house. So, are you saying that no flue cover likely means no asbestos in the other components of a chimney / mortar used to create the external chimney area? Except a small chance of asbestos inside cement? If I was cleaning that up and exposed to lots of that, could that also be harmful?

This was the dodgy one

It's extremely unlikely asbestos fibres had been added to any of the components of your chimney. The cap on the other chimney would've been a later addition during the time it was legal to use asbestos boards.
I don't think you've anything to worry about, as a PP said, the builder wouldn't have touched it if he had any doubts.

You have really helped @OttersAreMySpiritAnimal thank you for your time replying to me----

I was diagnosed with mesothelioma at 23, I was exposed to asbestos when I was 3-4 years old.

This does not look like asbestos to me. But what I will say as a little PSA - PLEASE please be careful when cleaning up debris from house renos. Don't be so quick to scoop anything up or have fibres going everywhere. Always check with a professional first.

But in answer to your question OP, that doesn't look like asbestos to me and you did the right thing checking and getting a builder in. But if this was indeed asbestos, you would've cleaned it up with children in the room. Please anyone be very careful with tampering and touching materials that look suspicious. But if a builder left it out for you to clean, then it wouldn't be asbestos anyway. 🙂

@onehundredredroses I'm so sorry to hear this, I hope that you are ok? That's extremely scary. Were you exposed as a one off aged 3? Thank you for your insight. So you think a builder would be 100% sure by sight if he was dislodging asbestos pieces? Thank you for your time replying to me about this.

Yes - a reputable builder would absolutely know so I wouldn't worry!

And I'm okay, thank you - lucky to get to 6 years post dx! Sorry to be a fun sponge, but any asbestos threads I just pop in and remind people to be careful :)

@onehundredredroses can I show you one more picture? I rang the asbestos tester but no availability to check the sample. I wore ppe and took this photo... thanks so much for your time and I'm so sorry for your situation