At work this week I was caught out by a manager and found myself helping him drill into asbestos cement sheet. Neither of us had even a paper mask.
I was holding something while he drilled into the sheet with tech screws and there was a bit of airbourne dust and some settled on my overalls.

I plan to see my GP this week. I have very minor asthma, are they able to do any testing for presence of fibres in the lung?

any advice welcome.

Honestly, I wouldn’t do it again (wouldn’t have done it the first time) but I wouldn’t lose any sleep over it. Asbestosis is an industrial disease of people who worked with the stuff regularly, not one-off DIYers.

How do you now know it was asbestos cement sheet?

What did you do with your clothing?

Thanks

Chances are that unless the sheet is more than 30 years old it is actually a fibre cement sheet and not asbestos. The type of sheet commonly called an asbestos sheet has not had any asbestos content for so long, any that are still out there are going to be pretty brittle and hard to drill without falling to bits. And in any case, the asbestos that is proper nasty is the really loose fibrous stuff used as insulation in hollow walls. The stuff bound up in the roofing sheets is nowhere near as dangerous (though should still be treated as hazardous, as should the dust from the non-asbestos roofing sheets TBF)

Do you also smoke? Smokers can have more problems with asbestos fibres in the longer term.
This (American) site has details of the types of Asbestos in use, click the arrow in the box to scroll through them.

I think welsh farmer has confused his less and more in the first sentence, stuff over 30 years old is more likely to be contaminated with asbestos fibres. A sample sent to a testing lab would allow you to be more certain of what was in the sheet material. Costs are low for the test and there should be an asbestos log of the premises to consult listing what and where it is in the building. If there isn’t one, a call to HSE should be on your list for Monday.

Nuke, I asked the manager when we were in the cage. He replied asbestos cement, its pretty ancient looking and is damaged here and there. my overalls went in to a thick plastic sack and are in my shed now.

Sandwich, never smoked I will look into the other stuff now.

If you want to make something of it your manager could be in very deep poo for that, as could your employer 😯

There was something in the news about a policeman who’d been at the Brighton bombing developing asbestosis. For that amount I would talk to a GP, but you are extremely unlikely to suffer I’ll effects from a one off all the same.
Don’t do it again, you need far more than a paper mask to handle asbestos safely.

In reality, there’s nothing you can do retroactively. Best thing you can do is record the exposure with HR.

Is it confirmed asbestos or assumed asbestos? If assumed, you might want to press the company to get a sample tested so at least you know.

Lots of people have spent a lifetime being exposed to the stuff and shown no ill effect so try not to worry too much.

On the plus side, its a one off and this isn’t an incident of long term exposure. On the downside, there’s always the possibility that even that one exposure could lead to problems a lot further down the line. However, you may well have been exposed in the past unknowingly as we all might have been. I wouldn’t panic or worry too much although I do appreciate it will be concerning. I’d dump the clothes as a precaution.

I asked the manager when we were in the cage. He replied asbestos cement, its pretty ancient looking and is damaged here and there

If your manager knew it was asbestos and willingly exposed you, I’d be very angry and I wouldn’t accept this 😡

If your manager knew it was asbestos and willingly exposed you, I’d be very angry and I wouldn’t accept this

Yup. That’s outrageous.

I think that is what I have said (re-read it a few times)

You’re certainly inhaling more carcinogenic crap cycling or driving behind a smoky diesel engined vehicle.

Thanks everyone.