Hi,

I have worked in a classroom with a brick wall covered with what looks like flaking artex paint in a really bad condition. I have only worked in there 2 mornings but I have really bad health anxiety and am worried I have exposed myself to asbestos. I didn’t touch it and I don’t think it has been disturbed recently. Please can someone help. I am going to get it tested but I am worried I have breathed in fibres from being in the room

You will die. Horribly. I may be wrong, but that is the problem with joining and asking advice on a bike forum rather than a medical one.

I’d be surprised if the council would leave children go to school to expose them to this flaking artex paint. They have their own H&S department.

Get your anxiety looked at as well, analysis = worrying = is of no help = feeling sh** mentally and physically. Just stop believing your anxious thoughts and let them, and the feelings they produce, go,

If it was just sitting there being a wall, you should be fine.

If it was jiggling about and bits flying off, then likely those bits could become airborne.

Maybe ask the school?

Are you sure it’s artex? The textured horrible stuff with horrible patterns made in it? If your in a school I find it difficult to believe they would have an old artex covered wall containing asbestos! It tends to get labelled, removed etc in public buildings.

Not all textured paint had asbestos in it.
Most council buildings have a good knowledge of what is asbestos. I had a meeting in one once where all the wall panels had asbestos in so there were little stickers everywhere saying don’t drill into this etc

The school should have an asbestos register giving the location of all known asbestos, it’s condition and level of risk. Ask to see that.

Does it vibrate like this?

Run..

Do as squirrel tells you. If you ain’t messed with it no harm probably. Contact local council yourself ask them to test it.

Just had my artex ceiling tested as I’ve had a leak and the insurance company sent a tester round to assess it for asbestos before sussing out the claim value. Mine is a mid-’90’s house so didn’t have it but apparently older artex on older houses is very likely to contain small amounts of asbestos.

But if it is a brick wall then surely it is a render and not artex?

With all due respect, I think your health anxiety is the issue here.
If you haven’t already, I’d really recommend speaking to your doctor and getting in touch with IAPT (you can self refer) as a starting point.
This isn’t meant in a dismissive way. I know several people whose lives are severely affected by anxiety and it _sucks_. I hope you can get some help.

There’s nothing stopping you enquiring with whoever looks after your building as to what that material is and when it was last assessed. Don’t have to mention your own anxiety or start bandying words like asbestos around.

I scrapped an entire kitchen free of artex over 20 years ago and am still alive. All the walls as well as the ceiling were done in it. It was in Newhaven though where the Artex factory was so maybe the lunatic who put it on the walls was nicking it from work. Oh and no doubt all the paint I removed was full of lead and the shed roof was definitely cement asbestos.

Edit – i should say that I have actually had a genuine injury from Artex. A friend’s hall way walls were done in it and I actually managed to draw blood when brushing my arm against it!

I was in a school where there was a bit of suspected asbestos and whole areas were very quickly sealed and taped up with plastic sheeting, it is taken seriously. What would make me ill is having to work around artex, it gives me vaulting nausea (maybe that’s where they got the idea).

vdave2 – Member
I scrapped an entire kitchen free of artex over 20 years ago and am still alive.

Takes about 40 years for the nasty stuff to develop.

Got a load of old textured ceiling stuff though not sure if it’s Artex or what. Pre-2000 and apparently it’s advised to assume it contains asbestos. https://www.aic.org.uk/asbestos-in-artex/

Crazy I was once thinking of just sanding it down myself.

Old Artex though supposedly only has small amounts mixed in, and if not disturbed it should be okay.