Fear of cancer

[Mogley123]

Two summers ago I painted a lot of rooms and hallways in my house. The walls were in bad shape so I used a lot of spackle and did a lot of sanding. For the most part I wore a dust mask. I just read that the spackle I used contains silica which is a known carcinogen (lung cancer).

My son would have been two years old at the time and although he was not in the room when I was sanding he was in the house and he would have been walking or running through the rooms and hallways soon after the sanding. Plus I had tarps down that would have had a lot of the silica from sanding on them that wasn't vacuumed up right away.

So now I am concerned about my exposure and I am really, really worried that my son breathed in some of the silica. I can't stop thinking that I have inadvertently caused him harm and that he may develop lung cancer now over this. I have been researching this online all day and most of the websites say that it has to be a chronic exposure but I'm just sick over this. I don't know how much he was exposed to and I am so worried that this has harmed his lungs. Am I overreacting or is this a genuine concern?

[Ocdkillsme]

I have been through this experiences with chemicals over and over. One time exposure won't cause your son to have lung problems. I know the guilt is there but what is done is done and there's nothing you can change. It is like with pesticides. I live in a unit complex and while I was pregnant and while my children were very young one just had been born they sprayed my whole unit complex and outside my door. I walked out while they were doing it. I was so angry that I called the body cooperate and screamed at them at while they did these professional pesticides without sending a letter. they are selfish and it makes me mad everyday that they do these sprays. I kept blaming some parts to the ongoing pesticides contributed to my sons developmental delays. I also contacted 4 different experts that reassured me that it's a chronic exposure like more then a few times. I was worried with the link with chemicals and childhood cancers.

I hate chemical that much around my children and I since the birth of my second child. Anyone I see spraying, cleaning, painting, building. I avoid and get so worried. Visiting my inlaws which they live in  a very old house which is likely to contain asbestos. So I always look for cracked walls. Or paint coming off the walls thinking it has lead paint. I even rang so many asbestos removal places to ask so many questions. I have studied about so many chemicals because oft ocd.

One time I left a Teflon pan burning and when exposed to high temperatures there's bad chemicals realised that are carcinogenic. I thought I harmed my baby son who was a few months old. He breathed in all these chemicals because off me. I rang up the some people, they assured me a one time exposure would be ok.

I could go on forever with my chemical fears. In your situation your son will be fine. , it was a one time mistake and it won't harm him. His exposed to more things in his everyday life epically in the air. There is asbestos and lead and so many things we breathe in from the environment. A little bit won't do much harm.

[JGF25]

First you have to remember there are no do-overs.  You sanded and painted and that is that.  So you can't beat yourself up over something you can't change.  I agree that cancer is not from a one-time exposure.  A person who gets cancer from this type of situation is someone who works in the trade, does this job day in and day out and doesn't wear a mask or hardly wears a mask.  This is the person who MIGHT get some kind of ailment from this but still it doesn't me he/she will get cancer.  

Case in point...I work with chemicals.  Some of them are carcinogens.  When I broke the bottle of NMP at work and got it all over my feet (it dissolved the wax on the floor tiles and ruined them and part of my shoes...thankfully doesn't hurt skin) I exposed my skin to a carcinogenic chemical.  Of course I washed my feet as best as I could.  This chemical is not going to cause me to get cancer because of this one time exposure.  Now if I repeatedly used it over the course of many years without wearing gloves, etc. then yes, I probably have an increased chance for whatever type of cancer this chemical causes.  The same goes for xrays.  It is the build up of time of radiation that is the problem and we are talking about a huge amount of radiation needed.  

So try your best to let it go.  and of course if you cannot get over this, you will need to see a psychologist.