Normal Indoor Radon Levels
Radon is a naturally occuring radioactive gas that emanates from the earth and can sometimes be found in water. You cannot see, smell or taste radon. Radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer in my most countries across the globe, including the United States. Any exposure increases one's chances of getting cancer, but there are levels that are considered acceptable and pose minimal risk. Radon can be in your home, and you may not even know it. Does this Spark an idea?
Other People Are Reading
-
How Does Radon Enter the Home
-
Radon can enter your house through cracks in your foundation. It can leak through cracks in your walls, appear around construction joints in your house, seep into the gaps around service pipes and linger inside crawl spaces. Any cavities within your walls can attract radon, granite countertops and flooring can be radioactive, and radon can even appear in your drinking water.
How is Radon Measured?
-
Radon is measured by pico curies per liter. A pico curie is a unit of radioactivity and the rate at which the radioactivity decays. This radioactivity is measured against one trillionth of one gram of pure radium. The abbreviation is "pCI/L" and this is the format any radon content will be presented to you.
-
What Are Acceptable Levels of Radon?
-
There are no safe levels of radon, only acceptable levels. We are exposed to radon outdoors and in our homes. The Environmental Procention Agency [EPA] has put the limit at 4pCi/L and recommends taking measures to reduce radon in your environment if you receive a measurement about 2pCi/L.
Radon Kits
-
Testing for radon in your home is affordable and easy. There are many kits available ranging from short term to long term to those that even will measure the emissions from the granite in your home. The least expensive kits I have been able to find come directly from the EPA. Short term kits are only $15. The EPA recommends starting with a short term kit. this kit will tell you within two to six days if your radon levels are above 4pCi/L. Long term kits take approximately 90 days and are recommended for those doing a checkup on their home to insure that their radon levels are still acceptable.
Reducing Radon Levels
-
When starting the reduction of radon process, you will notice that there are a wide array of avenues one can take. The most straight forward is to go around your home and repair any cracks in your walls. next, completely seal the area around your service pipes and fill any cavities in your walls. Next, you can increase the ventilation in your house, even adding simple fans, opening doors and windows and any vents.
More extensive measures would be adding "subslab depressurization" which are actually suction pipes added to your flooring and outdoors to release radon and dissiminate it so the concentrations are no longer effecting your personal space at unsafe levels. There are contractors that specialize in radon reduction and many new homes being built are designed with radon reduction methods.
-
References
Resources
- Photo Credit JD Kulinski
