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All this plus if you attended secondary school in the 90s odds are you have been exposed to a significantly higher level of airborne asbestos than you would be if you decided to remove a ceilings worth of artex with a belt sander and no dust extraction. The heat proof gauzes that went between the Bunsen burners and glasswear was azzy caked onto wire mesh and in my experience were thrown about with much enthusiasm.
Bobbo
Unpopular opinion time.
First off, get it tested for asbestos if you’re concerned. It’s not that expensive and the turnaround is relatively fast.
I wouldn’t sand it even if it didn’t have asbestos in it, sounds v messy.
The amount of asbestos in artex is low, and it’s the least dangerous type. Knocking a few nibs off isn’t likely to pose that much risk and it won’t really create much dust.
As has been pointed out, all construction dust is v bad for you. Uncured cement, plaster etc particularly shit me up as they’ll react with the moisture in your lungs and be nasty. Any kind of glass fibre insulation also seems particularly grim, but people will bring down a ceiling with old insulation behind it along with decades worth of old and horrible dust but have nowhere near the same level of vigilance compared to suspected asbestos.
Essentially dust is v bad, and we know asbestos dust is really bad. But you won’t actually have much exposure having a plasterer denib an artex ceiling IMO, especially if they prep the area properly and clean up afterwards.