You may have heard about asbestos and the dangers of it, but you might not have given it a lot of thought. If you have an older home, however, it is imperative to have it inspected for the presence of asbestos. Otherwise, you and your family members could suffer from serious health-related complications. These are just a few of the things that have been found to correlate to asbestos exposure, so as you can see, asbestos are not anything to sneeze at.

1. Mesothelioma

Mesothelioma is one of the most common health conditions that can happen in those who have been exposed to asbestos. Basically, mesothelioma is a type of cancer that affects your mesothelium. Mesothelium is a protective membrane which can be found in your chest cavity, heart or abdomen. It can start in one part of your body's protective membrane and can spread to the surrounding tissues and the membrane in other areas of your body. The survival rate for those who suffer from mesothelioma is surprisingly low; in fact, the five-year survival rate sits between five percent and 10 percent.

2. Lung Cancer

Many people assume that lung cancer is related to smoking, but there are other causes as well. For example, many people who suffer from lung cancer have it because they were exposed to asbestos. Lung cancer can cause chronic coughing and hacking, pain and weakness, recurring problems with respiratory issues, shortness of breath, swelling in your face and neck and more.

3. Asbestosis

Asbestosis is only seen in individuals who have been exposed to asbestos fibers. This chronic lung disease that comes from scarring in your lung tissue. Asbestosis isn't usually seen at first; most people only suffer from these symptoms after prolonged, regular exposure to these fibers, such as those who live in homes that have asbestos present. The symptoms can range in severity from quite mild to much more severe and can result in shortness of breath, loss of appetite and weight loss, tightness or pain in your chest, a dry cough that just won't go away and even "clubbing" of your fingertips and toes, which can cause them to look much wider than they usually do.

As you can see, asbestos exposure can affect you and your family in many ways. To help keep your family safe, call or request an asbestos inspection company at http://www.arguspacific.com to come out and take a look at your home.