If you are worried, send a sample to a reputable lab to be tested. It runs $25 - $50 and you'll have the results in 1-3 days. Although asbestos backing on vinyl flooring was outlawed, some shady flooring retailers were still installing it after 1984. We found that out just before we removed flooring from our kitchen!

I'm still just a mess. Thank you all so much for your responses. It's funny, I'm not the least bit of a "germaphobe." I have several dogs and likely sleep with a least one dog butt in my face every night. Dust doesn't bother me nor do I lay awake at night worrying about bed bugs or the swine flu. But this got me. I feel like everything in that house is coated with asbestos. As I said this small back den ajoins the kitchen and I figure all the dishes, items in the pantry, walls, everything is tainted. Toxic waste dump! Okay, rant over for the time being. Vinyl tiles are 9X9 size and there's absolutely no doubt that they are the asbestos kind...in my mind anyway. Hubby whacked up about a 12X12 section of them before he got clued in. He then stopped so there are many tiles still down. Some tiles came up in tact, some were in pieces. He bagged the tiles and today he mopped down the whole area. He then spread this Ardex stuff I believe it's called on the floor to seal off the asbestos that is also in the black crap that they used to adhere the tiles. Tomorrow he is going to try to wipe down as many surfaces as he can. How do you wipe every nook and freakin cranny? What else can we/I do.....seek out a therapist? Divorce court? aggghhhhhh! Thanks for any hand holding, pup

Seabornman, What was your experience, was it from an attic? Does it come granular and puffed? A question I have is the degree to which vermiculite is inherently dusty/friable, or is it like 9 inch floor squares, with asbestos locked into a matrix. I learned a couple years ago that some popcorn ceiling material was made with vermiculite. Because of that, I had to retest my ceilings, which did not come back hot. I would recommend to KZ for piece of mind, to speak with an Asbestos testing lab and either have them come out to collect a sample, and test it stringently.

No, you don't have to worry. We are all exposed to trace amounts of asbestos every day that is floating around in the air from many sources, such as brake linings and industrial use and emissions. If there was any exposure that you had from your tiles --- if they even had asbestos in them to begin with -- it would have been indistinguishable from background levels. I'm not saying to be cavalier about handling, removal, or disposal of asbestos materials, but, if what you did had any risk associated with it, most of the population of the U.S. would be dead. You're environmentally aware, which is good, but you also know just enough to scare yourself without having the risk assessment background to know that what you did was of no consequence. Buckle your seat belt, don't smoke, and eat a healthy diet, and you will have eliminated a large amount of risk in your life. The only health consequence of this incident is if you keep thinking about it...the stress could harm your health.