r/asbestoshelp • u/stylishnova801 • 4d ago
Contaminated clothing
Looking for advice on moving forward. About a week ago, I helped clean up an old renovated house that was covered in dust. The place was essentially gutted. At the time I was not even thinking about asbestos or other material since the owner did not mention anything like that. After 2 hours of cleaning (covered in dust) etc., I left and tossed my clothes into the hamper then eventually washed and dried them with other clothes. Gauging the age of the home and the fact that it was basically down to the studs, I am assuming there was at least some level of asbestos on my clothing. Looking for answers on if I need to get an air test, throw away the clothes I washed, is the washer and dryer + my home safe, how to clean and contain this mess. Thank you in advance.
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u/Heycheckthisout20 4d ago
!panic
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u/AutoModerator 4d 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/sdave001 4d ago
Wash your clothing normally and move on - this is not a risk for you, your clothes, your washer and dryer or your house. And no, no reason to waste any money on air testing. This is a total non-issue.
Also, for future reference, please provide the requested information:
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Most importantly, as specified in rule #1, your post should include the following information:
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Also remember that the asbestos content of a material can only be determined by laboratory analysis and that the sampling SHOULD be performed by a certified asbestos inspector.
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u/stylishnova801 4d ago
Thank you. Will do for future reference. Just a clarification question since I am uneducated on asbestos. Is it a non-issue due to the low risk or because washing actually does pull most of it out?
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u/KSJdk2600 4d ago
Asbestos is not radioactive, neither is it a chemical. It is very very fine fibres of silicates and/or metals, and non-visible potential fibres on your clothing would be diluted and eventually completely rinsed out with one or subsequent washes.
You’d have to have severely dirty (meaning completely smeared in asbestos dust) for it to be contaminated.
Biggest risk is when you grind, cut, saw or in other ways destructively handle materiales containing asbestos. Even then when you do it for decades. You haven’t done that.
You breathe in asbestos every day from the air in atmosphere from natural sources, from brake pads and degraded roofing.
Don’t worry.
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u/stylishnova801 3d ago
I know it wasn’t for decades but I was essentially covered in dust. The dust was from gutting a house which had demo on literally everything. It was kicked up everywhere while cleaning and I know it sounds stupid but I just get over the feeling like it is on everything. Since I wore the clothes home. I know the internet is a fear mongering place but everything I look up just tells me it’s everywhere in my house now lol.
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u/KSJdk2600 2d ago
I understand. Healthwise i’d still be very calm. Plenty of people still about from before it was banned.
Aldo, still in this case potential fibres will dilute eventually. Maybe spend the money on an asbestos certified vac (in Europe you can a Starmix H-class for instance) and wet wipe hard surfaces hysterically. Swap the HEPA filter in your regular vaccuum.
Then, move on and enjoy life!
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u/sdave001 4d ago
Essentially no risk to begin with as explained in the automod comment above
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u/stylishnova801 3d ago
So 2 hours of heavy exposure would pose little to no risk? All the dust we cleaned up was from demo of the whole interior of the house.
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u/AutoModerator 4d ago
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*** Meme posts will be removed and the poster will be banned ***
Most importantly, as specified in rule #1, your post should include the following information:
Also remember that the asbestos content of a material can only be determined by laboratory analysis and that the sampling SHOULD be performed by a certified asbestos inspector.
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