Edit: Updated imgur link to include more pictures
Hi all,
I'm working with somebody to help renovate an old house (akiya, probably built in the 1970s) that they purchased in Nagano. Part of this renovation has included creating a hole in the wall of the bathroom, about 20x20cm, so that we can install a fan. Just today I knocked the hole with a hammer but then right after doing so, as I saw all the dust falling to the ground, it dawned on me that this house would have been built at a time when asbestos was widely used in construction in Japan and around the world. Now I feel really dumb for only considering this right after I made the hole but it's also got me stressing out quite a lot. From my research Japan banned asbestos in 2006 but this is long after this house was built.
Here's an imgur link with pictures of the wall. This material is used not just in this bathroom but most of the interior walls of this house.
From my research this looks to be tsuchikabe/土壁 (earth wall)? (if I'm wrong please let me know) Is this known to contain asbestos? But also the wall isn't just the tsuchikabe dirt/sand material, I see there's also 2 layers of wood/paper with some sort of material between it which I'm unsure of. Is this also part of tsuchikabe walls? Or is this a different material? Could that material contain asbestos?
Thanks everyone in advance for any input. I'm not sure if I'm being overly pedantic but upon realising that this wall might contain asbestos I've become quite stressed and worried that I've done some serious damage to my health from this small mistake.
by newjacknewme