What are the immediate effects of asbestosis?

Little or none: Asbestos exposure has no specific immediate effects. Asbestosis is the disease some can get long after (usually decades) inhalation of asbestos dust. When associated with COPD it can cause chronic difficulty with breathing. Some of these people will develop a cancer any large exposure to any dust or inhaled particulate can cause immediate symptoms such as a pneumonitis or acute bronchitis.