Here is where the floor is worn down

Honestly, I would suggest NOT scaring yourself unnecessarily while you are waiting for the tests. How long will it take before they arrive? If the tests do come back positive for asbestos, you can hire a company specializing in asbestos removal to come in and safely remove it. It is a PITA, but they will contain the asbestos during removal and disposal. We had to do that when we replaced the venting in our attic ... plastic and men in white suits everywhere!

Sometimes it's better to just re-cover such things and let them be.

Also, if you have a positive test for something like that and don't handle it, it devalues your home.

Ignorance really is bliss in some cases.

In the meantime, take care what kind of ventilation is used in the room. Floor fans are not a good idea, for example.

Is the room still occupied?

The room is still occupied. We've only become aware that this is a possibility in the past few days and just had the test sent in today. We really don't know how to handle this.

This is a very contrary answer, not backed up by anything but cranky opinion.

You do not have a serious problem. A minor one yes, but it's no big deal. Asbestos harms by being inhaled over a long term in significant (whatever that means) quantities to mess up the lungs. Asbestos in flooring is usually so encapsulated that there's no measurable release into the air of any fibers at all unless the floor is turning to dust.

Asbestos is not an instant poison. Short term contact is trivial. Those asbestos removal folks wear heavy duty protection because exposure to them is a daily thing and when they disturb and wallow in the stuff day after day then it's a big problem.

If that was my floor I'd put on a mask, scrape it all up, mop it further, vacuum everything, take a shower and wash my clothes. There would be zero effect to my health.

I may have just jinxed it.

However, you shouldn't worry much about being in the shadow of a monstrous doom. It's all fixable. If it's real linoleum (not vinyl), there really is an excellent chance of asbestos. Vinyl, not as much.

So, since the room is still occupied, when does this become;" Serious asbestos concerns?

@snoonyb when an inspector came through and told us that they flooring potentially contained asbestos. It never crossed our minds before so it's been exposed and scratched and we had no idea.

What caused the inspector to come through?

I second grubby's comment. The asbestos fear is usually way overblown in people's minds.
You're fine. Your brother is fine. You don't need to evacuate. If the tests come back positive, just get it removed properly and go on with your life.

@snoonyb we are looking into selling. It was just a general inspection because the house is old. The floor in question was covered in carpet when it was inspected when we purchased the house and we're a bit novice at this so never crossed our minds that it could be asbestos when we pulled the carpet up.

@grubby and @greg thanks so much for your responses I really appreciate the peace of mind. I spoke with someone about testing the air quality this morning and they put me at ease as well. Said that flooring is of very little concern even with the scratches. Told me that if it isn't crumbling into a powder the risk of inhaling enought to cause damage is extremely low. Said popcorn ceiling and dry wall are much more of a concern and aside from nailing up a few pictures (and who hasn't in a house built in the 60's) we havens disturbed that. Still a little anxious because I'm a worrier but I'm not feeling like my risk of dying of lung cancer ar 50 is any higher because of the floor!

The people who were getting cancer from asbestos were spraying it as insulation in ships, working in an asbestos mine or factory, or had other intense occupational exposure for a period of years with inadequate protective gear. AND most of them were heavy smokers.

The asbestos scare was heavily fueled by the lawyers looking to make a bundle on lawsuits.

To put it into perspective: Toddlers play in sand, beachgoers roll in it .... but if you are a professional sandblaster the exposure requires protection like this.

Removal is what tends to put the fibers in the air, especially if things are ripped or torn in the process.

Encapsulation is frequently the safest and most sensible way to go.

Just placing a new rug over the existing floor would help.

If you must remove it yourself, wear a GOOD mask (ask at Home Depot for a recommendation) and moisten anything that is frayed to reduce dust. Better yet, read up on asbestos and the laws around its removal first.

If you are planning to sell anytime soon you probably need to follow OSHA standards or something similar; you'll probably have to ask your inspecter.

Houses with concerns like this are sometimes better off being sold "as is" for cash with no inspection. Contractors then buy them and renovate them, handling any asbestos concerns that arise while doing that.

Meg-
You are getting yourself worked up unecessarily. Now, you could create a hazard if you decided to sand the floor or rip it out without taking precautions...but that minimal amount of damage shown in your photo probably did not release any significant amounts of asbestos fibers because they are so well bound into the flooring material. Your home -- and tens of millions of others -- as well as schools, stores, and hospitals throughout the U.S. have flooring materials that contains asbestos and it is not an issue as long as it is not sanded, or significantly abraded, or improperly removed.

Testing will probably reveal the presence of asbestos fibers, but what does that mean for your purposes? What would you say if I told you that I could collect an air sample in almost any U.S. community and it would reveal a background level of asbestos fibers? It's not like you were living in an environmentally pristine situation and suddenly you found that you were living in a hazardous waste site. You're living in a typical American environment where there are background levels of all kinds of pollution, and you have a slightly damaged floor that may contain asbestos and may have released trivial amounts of fibers over such an extended period of time that the air in your house would be indistinguishable from the surrounding environment.

I say this as someone who has serious respect for the fact that asbestos exposure can cause serious risks: I spent many years as an enforcer of environmental regulations, including asbestos. However, I've also run into your situation many times. It's where someone is environmentally aware enough to be cautious, but does not have the background to realize that their situation poses no significant risk and they do a good job of obsessing over it and scaring themselves. Let me provide you some context. People are always more afraid of unfamiliar risks than familiar ones. Your chance of dying from asbestos exposure is probably one in 10 million; your lifetime chance of being killed in a car accident is about 1 in 100. Which of the two should you worry about more? Should you stop riding in cars?

It's good you have identified this as a potential problem because now you won't accidentally create a real hazard if you remodel. But recognize that you don't have to remove it...you should just prevent further damage. If it really bothers you, put another flooring material over it and forget about it. It's not going to pose a risk.

Thanks for all the feedback, found out today that it does contain asbestos. We're going to leave the tile there and cover it so that will not be disturbed any more.

Good decision. Now put this behind you and stop worrying!