do you have plasterboard on your walls?

I live in a 1930s semi bungalow.
MrP lined all external wall with insulation which necessitates covering with plater boards and then plastered. Then lining paper and then wallpaper or paint.
So to answer your question I doubt very much that dust is going to come through that lot.

Our previous property had plaster boards, installed by the previous owner.

We lived there 24 years, no issues that I recall.

Plasterboard that is covered in plaster and paint should not be a problem.
However, in the 1950s, 1960s and 70s a type of boarding using an Asbestos mix was used in some new builds. If I were you I’d get the boarding tested for Asbestos.

We have plasterboard but I think the dust caused in our home is because we are still living on an housing estate

I do not have plasterboard on my wall, but I do have various internal walls of plasterboard.

They cause no problems at all.

However, I believe the plasterboard manufactured and sold in Denmark is slightly different to that sold in Britain.

Here we size plasterboard with a thin solution of wallpaper paste, allow this to dry then paper and paint the walls, finally affixing skirting boards on full-lenght walls, or beadings if needed, where an upper wall meets , say, a kitchen counter.

Are you sure that the walls you suspect of causing your cough are actually plasterboard? I ask because various forms of interior walling material from the 1970s and '80s contain formaldehyde, which can cause the problems you name.

Infoman What made you think that the plasterboard in your house might be the cause of your cough? Presumbly you read something somewhere. I have googled the subject and all the information I could find related to building workers involved in sanding plaster surfaces and inhaling the dust

I suppose there may be a slight risk if you have large areas of crumbling plasterboard. Is there any visible sign of plasterboard crumbling because that is the only way that plaster dust could be in the atmosphere.

Unless the plasterboard is crumbling, I would not worry about asbestos. Asbestos is only dangerous if disturbed.

In our last house the integral garage had an asbestos board ceiling. When we moved in we simply put two thick coats of ceiling paint on it and left it. No one had any need to drill holes in it or do anything to disturb it while we lived there. We lived in the house for 30 years and we are both free of any asbestos related disease, as is DD whose bedroom was above the garage.

However, as others say, once plasterboard has had a couple of coats of paint, you should have no worries. The cause of your cough lies elsewhere.