Asbestos in 1930s house

Asbestos was until quite recently 80s/90s used extensively in building materials, small appliances, oven gloves, car brake pads, and the list goes on and on. I unknowingly used an asbestos containing hair dryer for years. In context, those who haven't been exposed to it must be very few - possibly none, I mean until 1999 in the UK it was legal to use in car brake pads and every time they braked they would shower a bit in to the street. Even if that board contained none (which is quite possible) you already have been around it at times, unless you've been living far from cars, old hair dryers, buildings, basically on the moon. Still, despite all this, we are lucky to enjoy long life spans in the UK despite so many of us living through the "lets put asbestos in everything!" era. It was a bad idea, but in context of the numbers affected and average life spans here, it appears to have been not as harmful as you might worry.

As someone who has - like everyone - been around it, I intend to keep away from it as much as possible in the future, but I'm not going to worry about the past. I have no reason to believe my exposure to it has been remarkable, despite the hair dryer and some in hindsight careless DIY many years ago stripping artex from ceilings.

Chipboard isn’t an insulator, so no, not really, but than I’ve seen all sorts of things used in the wrong places.

See the thread where someone wanted to board their loft with second hand fence panels. I think he was serious.

Our 1930s house had hardboard instead of plasterboard. Walls like paper.

If you can't stop worrying about it, then get a survey done to check. If you have still have bits of broken material you can order a pack online and you send off the sample for testing. Costs about £40.

But remember its breathing in the dust that causes problems and those who have serious effects tend to be those who have had prolonged exposure. The risk from a one-off possible exposure is surely tiny.

Look, you just have to stop worrying. It is as simple as just deciding to think about something else. If you don’t worry, it actually can’t bother you.

If anyone was exposed to something then there’s absolutely nothing you can do about it. We are all exposed to toxins and carcinogens every single day and some of us get cancer, some of us don’t.

Something horrible to could happen to any of us at any time. There’s a million things to protect your little one from and you simply cannot protect them from everything.

It most probably was chipboard if it looked like wood and was brown like wood.

I had a school teacher who used to EAT the asbestos walls of the post war prefab he lived in as a kid. He’s still going strong at 70. I believe the asbestos fibres usually take so long to cause cell deformation that most of us get old and die of something completely unrelated before it gets a chance.