Depressed too much to handle

[healthlovelive]

My landlord did illegal modifications in my apartment. He tore down some walls and the building is believed to have asbestos. He did not hire professionals and now there is dust all over my apartment. No one will help me move so I cry as I move toxic dust into my car with no help. I am lonely and now fear cancer from asbestos. Please help me I need to know I will be okay. I can't take this pain or anxiety anymore. I am reaching out to strangers on the internet for support. I am lonely and scared. The landlord is a very rich man who wanted to save a buck so he did not call professionals now I suffer with a deep depression scared for my health and my future. Scared.

[sara12345]

Yes, that was my response that has never been responded to.

Even with very small amounts of exposure to asbestos, you can get a deadly cancer called Mesothelioma.  It's fairly rare, but a risk nonetheless.  You really need to get this taken care.  And get some professional help with the cleanup of your stuff with the landlord's money.

[Anneinside]

There was a response on the 26th.

[sara12345]

I'm wondering if you received my posting, since I don't always see responses to my postings which I do look for.  The timing on your actions are very important.  Please let me know.

[sara12345]

First, you should gather the dust into a double zip locked bag and have it analyzed at a laboratory.  It shouldn't cost more than $25.  Look in the yellow pages under laboratories or asbestos.  If it is, then file a lawsuit against your landlord.  

Asbestos exposure should be avoided, but the hazards are not as bad as you would think.  You would not have enough exposure to get asbestosis which is dose related at higher doses.  The asbestos may cause cancer for you at least 20 years from now.  But your chances of getting cancer are still fairly small.  And if you don't smoke, your chances are smaller still.  Even if you smoke and quit now, you will bring the chances of getting cancer way down. To illustrate the point, 85% of the asbestos workers who worked all day every day in extremely high levels of asbestos and got cancer were also smokers.  Even if you were highly exposed to asbestos for your whole work life, still to simply smoke makes your chances of getting cancer twice as high as those highly exposed workers.  

But, you would still have a very good chance of winning lawsuit or getting a very good settlement.   If you find that it is asbestos, hire a lawyer immediately who will probably hire an independent industrial hygiene firm to take the sample and have it analyzed so that they can prove "chain of custody" issues in court.  Or call a lawyer tomorrow and see if they are willing to hire someone to take the sample.

Take action now.