Home Radon Testing

Radon Testing: each year, it is responsible for more deaths than brain cancer, melanoma, or bone cancer.  People in every state and in every country on the globe are exposed to it………….usually in their own homes.  And while there are daily news reports about the quality of drinking water and warnings of pesticides in food, few people know about the simple, yet effective ways to protect themselves from radon, the second-leading cause of lung cancer deaths in the United States.

Radon Gas is naturally produced during the breakdown of uranium in soil, rock, and water.  You can’t see radon.  You can’t smell radon and you can’t taste radon.  Unlike carbon monoxide and many other home pollutants, radon’s adverse health effect, lung cancer, is usually not produced immediately.   Thus you may be exposed to radon for many years without ever suspecting its presence in your home.

The USEPA action level for radon is 4.0 picocuries per liter of air (pCi/L).  The risk of developing lung cancer at 4.0 pCi/L is estimated at about 7 lung cancer deaths per 1000 persons.  That is why USEPA and IEMA recommend reducing your radon level if the concentration is 4.0 pCi/L or more.

While scientists can estimate the approximate lung cancer deaths per 1000 people, no single individual’s risk can be estimated.  Testing is relatively inexpensive, easy and is the only way to know whether you are at risk.

Home Inspection Tip Plan For Radon Testing Huntley

Because radon gas seeping from the ground into a home is a health hazard, you should learn how to test for radon in your own place. Particularly, this is true whether you’re buying, selling or building a home. Your home inspector can do the test or help you find a Huntley professional who is qualified to do it.

Radon testing is something that must be planned for. It’s necessary to decide where in the home the testing should be done and how long the test will take. No reputable tester can come into a home and test in 30 seconds or even 5-10 minutes. It takes a minimum of 48 hours to test accurately for radon. Some devices require a longer period.

Your About Your Home radon testing professional should locate the best place to put radon test equipment. It should go into the lowest level of the home that’s regularly occupied, such as any place used as an exercise area, bedroom, workshop or den. The EPA states that testing should not be performed in a stairway, closet, crawl, hallway space or in an enclosed area where there’s either breezy air circulation or high humidity. Avoid places such as kitchen, laundry room, bathroom or furnace room.

The only way you can know if your home’s radon levels are safe is to test for it. You can pay a Huntley home inspector to test your house for you, or you can buy the simple test kits for around twenty bucks at most hardware stores.

Follow the directions carefully, but the norm is to place the test kit in the lowest area of the house. They are left in place for a few days; then you simply ship them to a testing department which will report your radon levels to you.

There are a couple of considerations to keep in mind when short-term testing is used. Test accuracy is improved if two tests are taken at the same time. If you have two short-term tests done, one right after the other, you’ll get a better idea of the seasonal average for radon level readings. Both active and passive devices may possess features to help to prevent test interference.

Like carbon monoxide, radon is odorless, colorless gas responsible for too many deaths per year that can be prevented easily. According to Environmental Protection Agency, there are various case studies that show that radon gas is seriously responsible for lung cancer. According to the survey, more than 20000 people died because of radon gas.

Unlike carbon monoxide, you can’t measure the level of radon gas in your home by using a radon detector on the wall and changing batteries every year. The only way to know the presence of radon gas in your home is to have a home radon test. So it does not matter in which state or in what type of home you are living, radon gas testing is the only way to check the level of risk. Whether it is new or old construction, well-sealed or drafty, with or without the basement. It makes no difference. This radon gas is present in the air you take breaths. The only question is, how much it is present.

At About Your Home Inspection, Inc. Radon Testing can be performed as a stand alone test or in conjunction with any other inspections we offer.  Call our office for details or to schedule an About Your Home Radon testing at (847) 669-9040.