Saturday, April 26

High Radon Levels

It's official, our radon level is 5.3 pCi/L so we have to fix it.  Anything over 2.0 is bad. The EPA ratings go up to 20.0 so I'm thinking at least our level is not that bad, but bad enough that we will be shopping for the radon mitigation fan today. We learned at the American Lung Association fund raiser dinner that radon is the main cause of lung cancer in non-smokers. Once we had that information we got the free radon test kit from city hall and did the test.  Another motivator is that our neighbors to both the north and south have the radon mitigation systems on their houses because their levels were high. So we were pretty certain what our results would be.

According to the EPA, as radon gas decays, radioactive particles release small bursts of energy that can damage lung tissue. Not everyone exposed will develop lung cancer. The time between exposure and the onset of the disease may be many years. Your chances of getting lung cancer from radon depends mostly on:
  • How much radon is in your home
  • The amount of time you spend in your home
  • Whether you are a smoker or non-smoker
Even though I am not happy with the results, at least we know what we have to do now.

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