Hi Orangelime. Welcome to the forum.

I'm not a doctor nor am I an expert on asbestos. However, this question pops up regularly on this forum. 

The asbestos in Artex was Chrysotile, or white asbestos, and it made up about 2% of the mix. Whilst white asbestos cannot be called "safe", it is definitely the least hazardous form.  Furthermore the body will naturally clear out a small number of white asbestos fibres over time.  The low concentration of asbestos means that the number of fibres released will be quite low if you cut or drill it, with many fibres remaining trapped in the other 98% of material that fell to the floor and got swept up. 

You asked about the risk to your family.  Perhaps not surprisingly, there are no figures for the number of people who have died due to exposure to asbestos in decorative products.  However in 2016 there were 2,197 male deaths and 398 female deaths from mesothelioma. I hate to use gender stereotyping, but I suspect that few of those women were exposed at work, which means they must have been exposed to asbestos elsewhere. In the home, perhaps?  Now 398 sounds a lot, but to put it in context, 3500 people die in the home each year from simple accidents; 1800 die each year in road accidents; 1500 die from accidental poisoning; 1500 die each year from falling in the home; 5-10 die each year putting on their socks.  

So, although you're kicking yourself that you disturbed the material, you have done what most other householders (including me!) have done at some time - disturbed the Artex in the ceiling and possibly breathed in the fibres. But the extra risk to your family appears to be minimal and definitely nothing to panic about. It most certainly isn't a death warrant that will be hanging over everyone's head for years to come. You're getting expert advice on what to do next, but maybe sealing the damaged areas and being more asbestos aware is all that you'll need to do. Almost certainly removing the Artex would be more dangerous than leaving it in place and keeping it properly sealed. 

I'll also add one further point. Smoking and asbestos are a lethal combination. If you or any of your family are smokers, then now might be a good time to quit. 

So I guess the take home message is Don't Panic. 

Thank you for this. Really appreciate you replying. I do feel reassured now! 

Glad to help.  I live in a home built in the early 1980s with Artex ceilings. For a long time I was unaware of any danger, so I drilled holes etc, so when I realised there might be a problem, I researched around the topic and found out most of what I told you.

My town is a "dormitory" town for the nearby big city, and most housing was built around that time. I've been looking for reports of asbestosis among the residents and found none.  

I'd be really interested to hear what results and guidance you get from your specialist.  Please would you share with us? 

Hi, I am really worried about some asbestos I have been exposed to.

Our ceiling collapsed and the artex in our ceiling crumbled and created a lot of dust. We hoovered and swept it up not knowing it was asbestos. We got it tested and it turned out to be asbestos. Since it was the pandemic, it was hard finding anyone to come out and plaster over this huge hole. We were exposed to this for about four weeks as it was in our living room. Is this dangerous and will it harm me? I know the percentage in artex is low but I am really concerned it has impacted my health and I will get a deadly illness in the future.

There was also a hole in my bedroom ceiling in my artex ceiling. I did not realise it was asbestos so I never bothered to get it checked, but it has been there for two years and I am really worried about the potential harm it has done. I got it tested and it came back positive for asbestos. It has now been sealed but I am worried about the harm it has done.

Will these experiences harm me later down the line and should I be worried?

Hi.  You don't need to worry at all.  We have been in a similar situation to you and have spoken directly to some leading experts in asbestos management and asbestos-related respiratory diseases.  Happy to pass on the details what we learnt if you want to contact me directly, but the bottom line is that there is no risk whatsoever from your situation. 

One of the key bits of info was that to inhale enough asbestos to reach the legal safe limit, you'd need to spend 250 years continuously scraping artex and breathing in all the dust with no mask or protection.

Just seen your post and am concerned myself as just erected a wardrobe in my sons room and had to drill a number of holes into the ceiling. I had no idea that artex had asbestosnin and our house was built in 1970 so the prime time. I would really appreciate it is you could pass on the information you talk about it your post that you got.

Thanks 

Rachael

Hi Rachael

No worries.  We were worried about work we had done (that disturbed a LOT more artex than just drilling a few holes) without knowing about the asbestos (we had it tested afterwards and it was positive, so was definitely asbestos).  We decided the only way to stop ourselves worrying was to get expert advice.  We contacted three people who very kindly took the time to speak to us:

1. Specialist asbestos removal company:

Said that if we wanted them to, they could come and clear up any dust, but there was absolutely no reason to for health reasons.  The asbestos in artex is a very low concentration, it's very well bonded into the stuff it's mixed with so the fibres are not easy to release. He said honestly, really, don't worry about it in the slightest.  Note that most asbestos removal companies will tell you the opposite - their industry depends on scaring people into paying for their services.  We were lucky to find one that was honest.

2.  Professor of occupational and environmental respiratory disease

Said that there are a number of conditions linked to asbestos exposure, but most of them require many many years of industrial exposure.  The one exception to this is mesothelioma.  However, even though you don't need many years of exposure to get it from asbestos, you do need a "significant" exposure.  "Significant" in this context has been determined to be a minimum of 3 months, 8 hours a day, face down on the bench breathing in blue asbestos.  Futhermore, the asbestos in artex is Chrisotile which is "far far far" less toxic than the blue and the brown asbestos.  If we try to correlate that with the exposure we’re likely to get at home, we’re “absolutely nowhere near it”.  It’s “entirely right” for us not to be worried.

3. Expert on asbestos and hazardous materials - owns a consultancy and acts as an expert witness in asbestos-related court cases

Talked about how much asbestos there is in the environment anyway - it was used in pretty much all government buildings (hospitals, schools etc) for many years.  It’s in car brake pads which gets turned to dust in the atmosphere near roads.  60% of people in the UK have asbestos fibres in their lungs.  If you remove the rural areas and look at the major cities, 100% of people have asbestos in their lungs.  Yet only 2000 people a year die due to asbestos.  So this dispels the “one fibre will kill you” rubbish.  Studies have been done to determine the level of exposure under which it’s “highly improbable” that you’d get an asbestos-related illness (25 fibre years/ml).  The HSE have found that scraping off an artex ceiling whilst breathing in the dust generates between 0.01 and 0.1 fibres/ml.  Assume the worst case of 0.1 fibres/ml.  If you did this for one year constantly, you’d expose yourself to 0.1 fibre years/ml.  If you did it for 10 years, you’d have a total exposure of 1 fibre year/ml.  Therefore you’d need to scrape artex ceilings constantly (“8 hours a day, 5 days a week, 46 weeks a year”) for 250 years, breathing in all the dust, with no mask or extraction, to reach a total exposure of 25 fibre years/ml.  The real risk we (or our children) have been exposed to is “absolutely nothing at all - no risk at all”.

They were long phone calls and there was a lot more background info and explanations so feel free to ask me any more questions, but the main points I’ve listed should be enough to put your mind at rest I hope.

Thank you so much for your detailed response and yes it has really put my mind at rest.  I have anxiety issues so stuff like this really throws me so its much appreciated that you have put the time aside to give me all the information (particularly when searches on the internet scared the hell out of me !!)

Thank you so much :)

Rachael

More than happy to help.  I was in your position until I spoke to these people so it feels good to be able to pass on the knowledge they gave me and help someone else.

Googling is REALLY bad - there is so much wrong information, mainly driven by the "one asbestos fibre is enough to give you lung cancer" rubbish - "no exposure is safe" etc.  The expert we spoke to is disgusted by the asbestos removal industry in general - it's in their interested to peddle the terror, and that gets picked up by the media and other people on the internet.

Jak,

Im sorry for contacting you again after you supplied such brilliant infromation last week for me.  I was really reassured by the infomration you provided and realised that drilling a few holes in the artex was really not such a big deal but after getting quite anxious about asbestos generally over the weekend and looking round the house for all jobs we have done over the years I remembered that my father replaced our downlight in our downstairs toilet and drilled a 4inch diameter hole in the artex ceiling as well as removing the old light and repairing the hole.  He did it when me and my husband were away for the weekend so dont know how close my children were or even if they were helping him and it was a number of years ago so dont want to really bring it up with him.  I dont really know how much dust was created.  I know you spoke to the leading asbestos experts and I am assuming that the same advice you gave me last week would still apply to this situation as the same amount of asbestos would be released when drilling a large hole as it would if it was scraped (as in your example).  I'm really sorry for hassling you again, I know I am worrying over nothing but my anxiety does not stop me from doing it !

Thanks