Hello,
I recently discovered friable, breaking asbestos pipe insulation in my basement. We are going to have air quality testing done, and have considered dust wipe testing as well. I am extremely concerned for my family's health, including very young children, and would really appreciate any help you could provide!
We stored the a/c units in the basement uncovered for at least one year, and covered for 2 additional years, using them in the summertime. Additionally, we spent several months airing out a dresser in the bedroom with a fan blowing, creating negative pressure, which could have caused air to circulate into our living space (we did have a window open in the bedroom for some of this time). Furthermore, we have brought a couple of boxes and strollers previously stored in the basement (most of them directly under the asbestos) up into our living space on a few occasions.
I realize that there is no safe level of asbestos exposure, but I hope you might be able to help me understand how serious my family's exposure may have been -- particularly from the a/c units that were stored in the basement. I realize there is little we can do except minimize our ongoing risk exposure, but knowing the extent of our exposure would at least help me understand what testing my family should go through as we age.
Also, if you can help me understand what testing we can do to help determine our exposure, I would appreciate it! I would like to find out how much asbestos we might have been exposed to via the a/c units, but I'm not sure if it's possible to do dust wipe testing and then estimate the exposure we might have had from that dust becoming airborne? Or to have the a/c filter tested? (it's been used for 2 summers since it was left uncovered, though, so I suspect that would not be very telling)
Thank you so much in advance!