I'm 17 years old and eleven months ago I was diagnosed with a brain tumor in the core of my brian. The tumor was removed, but that's not what I'm curious about. I've been smoking cigarettes for about a year now and a few months ago I developed a cough. It doesn't sound like anything worse than a common cold cough and I dismissed it as nothing, but it hasn't gone away. It isn't a constant cough either.. one to three times a day i'll just cough out of nowhere, sometimes there is phlegm in the cough, but I've never examined it for any signs of blood. On top of the cough, I went to a grade school for 9 years which was very very old and falling apart in some ways. Supposedly the building carried asbestos and even though the risks of that are mainly in the demolition of a building....there were holes in the walls and many patches among the piping. In the past 2 years, 3 kids (myself included) who attended the school were diagnosed with some kind of cancer. I had a brain tumor, another had lymphoma, and the last one had something in his leg. Are the coughs normal or should I be concerned? Let me know
Something I forgot to add...a few months ago I lost 30 lbs in 3 weeks doing almost nothing. I went from 195 lbs. to 162 lbs. I've always had a fast metabolism but this striked me as a little extreme

I am about to rehab a house, that just happens to have a section with what is almost certainly an asbestos floor. I want to add a bathroom (which means cutting holes, obviously), add a closet (which involves pounding in nails, of course).

What I do NOT want is cancer, in myself or my workers.

I'll add on a new hard floor overtop the asbestos section, so that won't be a problem for my tenants. It's just a matter of what'll go on during the construction phase.

What do I need to do to make this reasonable?

Thanks.
I will say what I can and cannot afford.

They are reconstructing my school, and they have to redo certain rooms because there is asbestos in the walls, roof and floor.

i was told that once they start tearing down these places it becomes active and becomes a carcinogen.

They only have a thin piece of plastic and duct tape (the plastic has holes in it too) covering the entrances to these places.

what exactly is asbestos and is it going to come through the hole and cause lung cancer?