Ithaca Radon Testing- Facts You Need to Know
There are many sites that explain what radon is, but the majority of them scare you into believing that your house is totally contaminated and that if you don’t take remediation measures right away you will cause great harm to you and your loved ones. Radon is a natural radioactive gas that you can’t see, smell or taste.
Before we discuss what you really need to know about radon in your home, keep these numbers in mind: The United States uses as a threshold 4 pCi/L (picocuries / Liter). Our Canadian friends use 20 pCi/L as theirs, and many other countries either have a number in between or nothing at all.
Radon’s presence in your home can pose a danger to your family’s health. Radon is the leading cause of lung cancer among non-smokers. While no level of radon gas is completely safe, as with most things in life we must balance the benefits and costs to find our own “acceptable” levels. We walk outside and work in the sun, exposing ourselves to ultraviolet radiation and increasing our risk of developing skin cancer. We drive in automobiles almost every day even though greater than 1 in 86 deaths is a result of automobile accidents. People smoke, eat poorly, and engage in dangerous behaviors on a daily basis. To some degree, radon gas is another daily risk that we all must take. However, you choose what you eat, whether or not you smoke, and how and when you drive.
The United States government at one time said that 5 to 10,000 deaths per year may be attributed to radon. They did not say if those people were in poor health or smoked. Today, the epa website claims that the number of deaths is closer to 20,000. Before that number scares you, think of the number of accidents on the road per year and also remember that there are over 330 million people living in the USA. The percentage for the 20,000 is now: 0.0061 percent.
Granted a safe level of radon is zero, but even the air that we breath has small amounts of radon in it. The national average is 0.4 pCi/L and it is estimated by the National Academy of Sciences that outdoor radon levels cause approximately 800 of the 21,000 radon induced lung cancer deaths in the US each year.
Because you spend time in your home, the US epa uses 4.0 pCi/L as the threshold in which they recommend that a mitigation system be installed to remove as much as possible the radon found under the lower level. This will normally lower the radon level to 2.0 pCi/L or less in the average house.
Note that at different times throughout the year the radon level in a home will vary. Also if the home is drafty or you have windows and doors open then the level will quite different than when it is buttoned up.
One last comment about installing a radon mitigation system. Many homes have very porious basements, such as, dirt or gravel floors, field stone foundations, cracked floors, etc. If your house is similar, you may not be able to install a system, as the basement must be sealed to slow down the radon from entering your home. Also, do not install a system in the corner of the basement, when yours’ is 20 by 60. The fan will not draw anything from at least half of the house.
Check out these websites for additional information:
http://www.epa.gov/radon/
http://www.ccohs.ca/oshanswers/phys_agents/radon.html
For Ithaca Radon Testing please give me a call. We will discuss your needs and determine if a radon test is right for you, your home and your family. Thanks!
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