Asbestos is an all-natural mineral that causes cancer. As recently as the 1980s, because of their fireproof qualities, Asbestos fibers were often incorporated into house insulation -- a phenomenon that has since provided wonderful benefits to personal injury lawyers throughout the world, and offered a reliable staple for late night TV advertisements.

Tiny invisible tendrils of the inert substance float around in dusty air and are deposited in your lungs, where they cause slight inflammation that lingers silently for decades. No test can reveal their presence in your body, no cure is available for the condition, and your first symptom is could be an obstinate form of pleural cancer called Mesothelioma, which will typically kill you within a year, just as it does for 2500 other Americans annually.

Fortunately, you can often parley your fatal illness into a financial cushion for your surviving relatives by enlisting the services of an ambulance-chasing attorney -- one of which is probably featured as paid advertising on this page right now (Thanks guys! You are NOT ENDORSED by the author of this website.)

In fact, Asbestos and Mesothelioma are heavily represented online by a about 100 million websites -- many of which will eventually connect you with armies of blood-sucking lawyers. So here's my advice -- relax, throw your computer away, get annual chest X-rays if you have known occupational exposure, and let high-paid medical specialists do the worrying for you. Even among professional asbestos workers, less than 5% are likely to die of Mesothelioma, and the that rate is falling rapidly.

Is your home a ticking time bomb waiting to kill you? Probably not. The EPA reassures people that the great majority of homes with Asbestos pose no threat to their owners except in cases of fire, tornado, hurricane, tsunami, earthquake or expensive home remodeling -- in which case you have problems enough already.