Thank you. This eases my mommy heart very much so! I just keep envisioning "asbestos" floating around his room for him to breath. Ugh! And we are more than proactive with keeping our baby safe with vaccinations and car safety! Thanks for putting this into perspective for me. My husband will appreciate it since he sees it this way too haha

Right now we are leaving it untouched, have the vents disconnected (no airflow) and cardboard over. We may leave it like that for awhile and just get a whole new air system installed separate from the old. We will probably have someone prof come in and test it/remove once we have some more savings tucked away (we just spent 40k on a kitchen remodel)!

i was just meaning that my husband will be happy to hear that perspective that the past is the past, and that it probably wasn't a huge health concern (being small amount versus what it could be in a old house and people are typically perfectly fine unless they are working in asbestos clouds/ conditions on a regular basis.) I am just worried about my kids' health.

what would you recommend?

We also might get our air quality tested too

Thanks. But I guess my concern is more how to proceed trying to not worry every second of every day that there is asbestos in my son's room. I need to be positive and proactive (do what I can to create a clean living space for my son) because how else will I go on happily every day? I also feel I need to be practical...look at my parents generation that is surviving just fine and had been exposed to it in their homes, schools etc. my done had it blown in his face once and guess what he's fine. Please I understand you're wanting me to check my sources. But I also am hoping to hear that my risk is relatively low, well not as much mine but children's.

i created a plastic housing around the vent and took a sample out, it and the plastic had been sprayed wet too. Grabbed a sample with a ziploc bag on my hand, and sprayed it down again before double ziploc bagging it. sprayed the area again and folded up the plastic inside another garbage bag. Tied it all off and sprayed the "clean" area again. I'm hoping I'm good and the area was. I'll take the sample tomororw and hope for the best. I also taped off both vents so nothing can escape. And the heat is off. Any other suggestions that are helpful and proactive and not argumentative?? That's not what I'm here for.

Vacuum it and toss the bag into the trash.

The OMG IT'S ASBESTOS!!!! ads by customer-seeking law firms have done a great job making people hysterical at the thought of it.

To put things into perspective, to develop lung cancer from insulation asbestos exposure, not only does the exposure have to be extremely heavy but you also have to be a heavy smoker. The nicotine paralyses the cilia on the lungs and they can't clear the fibers out, so they sit there and irritate the cells.

So, if your son is a heavy smoker, tell him to STOP NOW because mommy said so. :)

I'm probably in your parent's generation ... have used lab equipment insulated with asbestos, removed pipes and ducts insulated with it ... and I'm fine.

My dad used to have an asbestos hot pad thing he used with the blow torch. Spent many a winter evening playing with it. He also had a tube of mercury. Played with that, too. I'm 70. No Rx. No health issues that I know of. Short attention span but I suspect I've always had that, it just wasn't a big deal in my day.

If this is still worrying you, you might want to find a different house, inspect it yourself for any potential health hazard, and sell this one. It's the only way you will sleep at night.

We actually chose to have a particulate air test today and get the results tomorrow. I think this will definitely bring me ease of mind. I am educating myself more (beyond the scare tactics on google) by asking all questions to our awesome abatement guy doing the testing. He thinks based on his experience the house will come out with normal test results.

we also just undergone a kktchen remodel (we hired out for it) and it was tore down to the studs and they scraped up probably what was asbestos tiles (the workers had a miscommunication with head contractor he had said leave it)....anyway based on the tiles, old lath and plaster (dated 1906 home so prob not asbestos containing from my research) but probably textured later on... all tore down. Lots of dust (mostly exposed just them ofcourse, but some did get into our living area (plastic had blown away in a couple spots) and prob got some in the air duct as well...knowing all that and then finding the asbestos tape (confirmed positive yesterday) in the heat register has me all worried. Still you think it takes a lot more than just one remodel (secondary dust exposure) to contaminate our home or cause for concern?

Still you think it takes a lot more than just one remodel (secondary
dust exposure) to contaminate our home or cause for concern?

Yes. Far more than that. The people who have to wear the bunny suits and respirators are tearing out asbestos as a JOB ... 40 hours a week, many weeks a year.

It's like the difference between going to the beach on a windy day and sandblasting for a living.

Thank you! Our abatement guy said what we have for asbestos in our home is totally cookie cutter for houses in our area (all dated from 1900-1980's). Ours is actually one of the oldest homes in the neighborhood and he said that we are lucky and it's a good thing because houses before 1920 were not built with asbestos products. It's 1920-1980 that are way more affected. But ofcourse can't take into account stupid updates that were made in the 70's (stick down vinyl tiles, texturing, lead paint etc). I wish I could have seen the house in its complete original state!! It was probably gorgeous! (Stained dark fir wood floors and trim, etc). Good news is the house was not insulated at all so we blew some in a few years ago--so that's new and harmless from when they tore everything all out. and I'm sure the dust had some lead exposure too but I had my 3yr old blood tested 3 weeks post demolition and he was in the normal range yay! I'm a clean freak and have been worried about the dust from the start of the remodel so I have been doing lots of cleaning (wet wiping) which helps our abatement guy said. The tricky part is things like furniture and carpet/area rugs. I just had them steam extraction cleaned and they look nice and fresh. I'm hoping the air test today will allow me to move on from all this and enjoy my new modern farmhouse kitchen!!!

Our air test came back with ZERO asbestos particulates! sooooooo happy! Glad I can move on and enjoy our beautiful new kitchen and our wonderful home! (We still plan to have the abatement company encapsulate the two asbestos spots--they're charging a few hundred for it. Doing it for safety having children and for resale value too).