I work as a labourer for my dad’s decorating company, a couple of the guys suspected that this was asbestos.
I’m 23, and live in London, England
I work a couple days a week in my dad’s decorating company. It’s a small firm, 5-10 guys, cash in hand, small scale jobs etc.
I’m a labourer and have little industry knowledge, I’m only really there to help out. Today I was given the task to strip all the wood chip wallpaper off the walls and ceiling in a 1.5m x 1.5m boiler room, using a scraper. It took me about 3/4 hour as the paper was on tight. The door was closed and the dust was everywhere, I had no protective equipment or mask.
After I had finished, one of the guys told me that the panel I had been scraping for the last 4 hours was likely asbestos and that I should be careful. I was absolutely shocked. At first I assumed he was joking but it turns out he was being dead serious. Also a few of the other guys who I worked with had the same suspicion. I was furious for not being told earlier.
I confronted my dad about this after work and he tried to down play the severity of asbestos. He told me; he knew plenty of people who had dealt with asbestos for years and were fine and that even he himself had dealt with it without protective equipment occasionally. He implied that extreme asbestos caution was stirred up by hazardous materials removal companies so they could make more money.
I have two questions.
Does this look like asbestos?, it was a ceiling board in a boiler room
If it is asbestos, what should I do now?