Public Service Announcement: Radon

When we came home from the hospital with our new baby in 2007, we also came home with a bunch of free swag: diapers, diaper bags, formula, breast pads (tee hee), and, hidden deep in a stack of paperwork: a coupon for a free radon test kit. I had no idea what radon was, or why we'd need a test kit for it, but they had me at "free," so I sent away for the kit, and I'm glad I did.

Radon is a naturally occurring element. It is an odorless gas that occurs naturally in the soil. Exposure to radon is limited when outside the fresh air, but radon gas can accumulate in homes and other buildings.
Breathing excessive amounts of radon gas can cause cancer. According to the EPA, 21,000 people a year in the United States die from radon-related lung cancer.

According to the EPA, radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer, after smoking, and the 6th-leading cause of cancer overall. The EPA has set an action level of 4.0 picocuries per liter of air. At this quantity, about 7 people in 1,000 would likely develop lung cancer. The average indoor level in the United States is 1.3 pCi/L. See the map below for the average indoor levels in Utah: According to this map, each county that is yellow or red (shout out to Beaver County! Holla!) has an average indoor radon level at or above the EPA action level. It should be noted that radon levels can vary by house, though, so please don't let this panic you. Still, if you live in one of these counties, it may be worth looking into.

So, I decided it couldn't hurt to test for this stuff. I sent away for my free test kit. It was a little sealed bag with activiated charcoal inside. I placed it per the instructions (which are quite strict, by the way: on the lowest inhabited level of your home, no closer than XX feet from the wall, the floor, the ceiling, any doors, and without excessive door opening/closing during the 3-day test). 3 days later, I collected the kit and mailed it in the pre-paid envelope to some lab in Texas. The results came back in a few weeks: 4.5 pCi/l, or 0.5 above the action level. Great.

Since short-term tests are by nature slightly less accurate, I ordered another, long-term, test -- secretly hoping that the long-term test would reveal that we were actually well below the action level. The long-term test was a small plastic disc which sat in our extra bedroom downstairs for 8 months. I sent the kit back. The results were 4.1 pCi/l, or 0.1 above the action level. Great again. Now we are not only still above the action level, but only by the slimmest margin. I really struggled with whether or not I should worry about it.

Both the EPA and the State of Utah (and I'm sure other states as well) have lots of good information about radon mitigation. The good news is that there are lots of things that can be done to a home to lower the radon levels. We contacted several companies who came out to do estimates on our home. The bad news for us was that we have a dirt crawlspace under the length of our home: this dirt is likely the source our elevated level of radon, but the remediation for a dirt crawlspace was pretty pricy. Like "Thank Heavens for Tax Returns" pricy. The remediation involved covering the our entire crawlspace with thin membrane and installing piping and an exhaust fan to suck all the air out from the dirt and release it through a pipe coming out of our roof (for homes on concrete pads, there are less-intrusive and less-expensive remedies).

The great news is that subsequent tests in our home have revealed radon levels at 0.3 pCi/L, which is about as close to zero as anyone can get. We can rest a little easier knowing that we've taken care of this issue and that radon in our home will not cause us health concerns.

So, I guess here's my little public service announcement: It might be worth your while to test your home for radon. The risks may not be overwhelming, but in the end -- for me anyway -- I couldn't justify ignoring the risk when I knew there things I could do to mitigate it.

The short-term and long-term tests can be purchased locally in hardware stores, or from any number of places on the internet. They're fairly cheap ($10 -$30, I'd say, which usually includes return postage and lab fees). You can also buy a continuously-monitoring radon detector that plugs in and gives you real-time data. Finally, if you do need radon mitigation, we have the names of several companies that did estimates for us. I'll post some useful links at the end.

Quinn


Here's a coupon for one-time test.

Here's a link to a continuous home monitor.

Here's more information at the EPA website.