If you’ve never heard of radon or thought about getting a residential radon testing service, it’s likely something that you should be paying attention to. The American Surgeon General warns that radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer, after smoking, and that radon causes as much as many as 20,000 lunch cancer deaths every year. If you’ve never thought about getting radon gas testing or radon mititgation and abatement service, here are three myths about radon and residential radon testing service that you might need corrected.
Myth #1: We Don’t Actually Know that Radon is Dangerous
Everyone agrees that large amounts of radon, a radioactive gas, is very dangerous. But some people have questioned whether it’s really all that dangerous in small amounts , and whether something like residential radon testing service is necessary for the average home. The tests showing a neutral effect to low radon exposure had serious issues with the way they were formulated, however, and the Center for Disease Control, the American Lung Association, the American Medical Association, and the Environment Protection Agency all agree that radon is dangerous.
As an example, if a family were to stand next a radioactive waste site, the Nuclear Regularly Commission has a limit to how much radiation those people can be exposed to. These are known levels of danger, and limit the amount of time anyone is allowed near radioactive materials. If that same family were living in a home with radon levels of 4 pCi/I, they would be exposed to 35 times the radiation they would be permitted to endure near a waste site.
Myth #2: My Home Probably Doesn’t Have a Problem
It probably seems like a real pain to have to find a radon testing company and think about how to get rid of radon, but estimates are that 1 in 15 homes in the United States probably have radon levels at or above the EPA’s recommended action level. Since a person’s risk of contracting lung cancer goes up by 16% with every 100 Bq/m increase in long-term radon concentration, it’s worth finding out and trying to fix radon levels. Scientists estimate that deaths from lung cancer could be reduced nationwide by 5,000 a year by lowering radon levels.
Myth #3: It’s Really Expensive to Hire a Residential Radon Testing Service
Short-term radon test kits are quite cheap. They measure the radon levels for around two to seven days, and while they are not as accurate as the longer-term tests, they are a very inexpensive way to get a rough estimate of radon levels. Only if these show a serious problem do you need to go with more expensive tests. Even then, the cost is likely less than you think. There are also quite a few reasonably priced solutions for radon abatement.
Radon can be a serious health hazard that negatively affects you and your family. Testing for radon is not difficult or expensive, and even mitigating levels of this radioactive gas is not a hugely expensive project, especially compared to the cost in health and safety for you and your family.