Do Cubicle Walls Contain Asbestos?

Factual Questions
1

I’ve searched around the General Questions forum a bit and I wasn’t able to find anything regarding this issue. I apologize if I’m repeating a question that has already been asked and answered.

I’ve begun to noticed a white, powdery substance coming from one of my cubicle’s walls. The spot where this is happening is right where my foot happens to rest whenever I cross my legs while at my computer. Feeling around on the cubicle wall, it seems that there’s some sort of panel inside it that has been broken up a bit at this particular spot. Also, knocking on that spot or snapping it with a rubber band releases a small puff of the white substance into the air.

I don’t want to be overly paranoid, but the thought has crossed my mind that the stuff could contain asbestos, especially since these cubicle walls aren’t what I’d call brand new looking. I’m not ready to evacuate the office and sue my employer or anything, but it would be nice if there was some way that I could verify that the stuff isn’t going to eventually make my lungs explode with cancer.

So, in summary, I have three questions:

  1. Do cubicle walls even have a history of containing asbestos laden materials?

  2. Are the characteristics of what I’m describing close enough to those of asbestos to be concerned, or should I just get more sleep, drink less caffeine, and stop worrying about random stupid crap?

  3. If this does resemble asbestos closely enough to be concerned, how would I go about verifying that it is indeed asbestos before raising a fuss about it.

2

I don’t know much about this subject, but for the people who do, I think the first question is going to be, how old are the walls? If they’re not very old, I don’t think it’s going to be a concern.

3

No, the walls you are describing are probably made from gypsum.