Radon Testing Services in SOUTHERN AND NORTHERN UTAH

You’re exposed to radon when you breathe it in. High amounts of radon may be found in the workplace, a school, or any building. You spend the most time in your home, so that’s where radon exposure is most likely.

Radon can come up through the ground and into your home through cracks in the foundation. Once it’s through the cracks, it can get trapped inside, where it builds up. It can also get into your home through well water. Rarely, building materials have been found to release radon into buildings. Radon exposure can happen in any type of home, whether it has a basement, a crawl space, or is built on a slab, but it’s more likely to accumulate in homes that are:

• Very well insulated
• Tightly sealed
• Located where the soil contains a lot of uranium, thorium, and radium

About one in every 15 homes is thought to have high levels of radon. The highest concentration of radon tends to be found in the basement or on the first floor.

It’s not enough to know that the house next door has been tested, because radon levels can vary from one building to the next. The only way to know for sure if you have too much radon in your home is to test for it. I use the Corentium Pro with Alpha Spectrometry technology.

A radon level of 4 picoCuries per liter (pCi/L) or more is considered high. Most of the time, you can reduce radon without making major home renovations or spending a fortune. You can:

• Seal and caulk foundation cracks and openings to help reduce the amount of radon that can enter.

• Install a soil suction radon reduction system, also known as vent pipe and fan system. A three- or four-inch pipe pulls radon from underneath the house and vents it outside. This keeps it from accumulating inside your home.

• Create a gas-permeable layer beneath the slab or flooring. This allows radon to move under your house, but it only works if you have a basement or slab foundation. It’s not for homes with a crawl space.

• Install plastic sheeting. The sheeting goes on top of the gas-permeable layer under the slab to prevent radon from entering your home. If you have a crawl space, the sheeting goes over the crawl space floor.

The Environmental Protection Agency provides detailed information on how to reduce radon in your home, as well as how to find a qualified contractor to do the work. If your radon levels aren’t 4 pCi/L or greater, but come close, it may be worth considering some of these remedies anyway.

Radon is all around us. In fact, you’re probably breathing it in every day, even if it’s at a low level. However, you can’t tell if you’re breathing it in at a high level. The danger in radon exposure is that you can’t see it, taste it, or smell it. And you won’t have any symptoms to alert you.

Radon gas can damage cells in your lungs, which can lead to cancer. Radon is responsible for about 21,000 lung cancer deaths each year in the United States, though it usually takes 5 to 25 years to develop.

According to the American Cancer Society, smoking is the number one cause of lung cancer. Radon comes in second. About 10 percent of radon-related cancer deaths involve people who don’t smoke. People who do smoke and are exposed to high levels of radon are at even greater risk. It’s estimated that lowering radon levels below 4 pCi/L could reduce lung cancer deaths by 2 to 4 percent Trusted Source, which could save about 5,000 lives.

Medically reviewed by Elaine K. Luo, MD on August 7, 2017 — Written by Ann Pietrangelo