First my wife got diagnosed with breast cancer, and seven months later, I got diagnosed with Renal Cell Carcinoma.

We therefore hired an asbestos testing company in order to have our house tested. We looked on-line and were surprised by the vast amount of businesses in that field advertising their services. Apparently, there must be a solid demand for asbestos testing.

It was a little later when somebody showed up to collect samples of the soil in our yard, the tap water, the siding of the house and even some little pieces of the drywall. He explained that everything will be send to their asbestos testing laboratory. If I recall correctly, about two weeks later we got the results back. Everything was okay. Except for the basement that showed some very low concentrations of radon, but nothing to be afraid of. Of course, this was a huge relief, since we were very concerned for our two daughters.

Many people might expose themselves to asbestos unknowingly. Up until the early 80s this material was very popular in the construction and building business and used for insulation, wiring and plumbing – sometimes it is even found in fire places.

In case you have reason to believe that you could be exposed to a risk, you shouldn’t wait too long with having testing done. And it depends – you might save some money by contacting an asbestos testing laboratory directly as opposed to a specialized company.

It is not a good idea to collect the samples yourself, but rather have the asbestos testing company doing the job for you. This is something you should not be trying to safe your money on. Leave it up to the experts, since they have the gear and the experience.

And with regard to saving money; it is without a doubt, much less costly to hire an asbestos testing company than potentially developing asbestos induced diseases like mesothelioma, lung cancer or asbestosis from being exposed to this hazardous material.

So again, look on-line or in the phone book for a local asbestos testing service. Otherwise, your town’s health department might be able to point you into the right direction.

Experts advise homeowners who live in houses built before 1975, to have asbestos testing done either way. And in order to know what you are dealing with it is recommendable to get somebody coming in and the testing done as soon as you can.

If the results come back okay, well, then there is another thing you can scratch off the list of “worries”.

The author of this article has website dedicated to his kidney cancer and cancers in general. He features a section on Mesothelioma and Exposure to Asbestos and talks about the importance of hiring an asbestos testing laboratory service rather sooner than later.