Radon: The invisible hazard in your home

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Radon: The invisible hazard in your home -

radon. While perhaps not as well known as carbon monoxide he cousins ​​or natural gas, odorless, colorless, tasteless is just as deadly. Naturally produced from the decay of uranium in the soil, rock, and water, it has been proven to be the second leading cause of lung cancer next to smoking. Studies show that radon can also cause emphysema, hardening of tissue irregularities lungs, pneumonia, and chromosome that lead to birth defects.

Do not live near a power plant or travel in a foreign country to have radon exposure. It is a natural element that is produced in the open ground under your house. Because it is a gas, it moves through cracks and holes in the foundation of your home, through floor drains, sump pumps, construction joints, and even the tiny cracks or pores in the hollow block walls. Radon can be found in any building at any time of the year. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Office of the Surgeon General, radon in the home is responsible for about 20,000 cancer deaths each year lung.

The Survey of national residential radon EPA shows radon levels are regularly present in approximately six million households in the United States. A high level of radon be nothing or greater than 4 pCi / L (picocurries per liter). According to the EPA, the concentration of the average indoor radon for America's homes is about 1.3 pCi / L If you find that the level of radon in your home is at or above 4 pCi / L (picocurries per liter), you should seek professional help and identify a good strategy to reduce the radon for your home. The average cost of radon mitigation in a typical house can vary depending on the solution you choose, but generally does not exceed many repairs / maintenance costs of the home you have faced as owner in the past.

Testing your home is the only way to know what your home radon levels are. There are no immediate symptoms that alert you to the presence of radon and it generally takes years of exposure before any surface problems. Keep in mind that high levels of radon have been found in every state. According radon.com, an average of 1 every 5 homes has high levels of radon. Visit the website to see the levels of your state. There is no need to panic or move to another state - this is not that kind of problem. It is, however, something you need to test and treat if necessary. If, after testing your home, you find that your home has high radon levels, there are ways to reduce them to acceptable levels for less than $ 500. Some common mitigation techniques are: ..

  • Sealing cracks and other openings in your house foundation
  • Sub-slab suction - remove radon from laden air from under the foundation of your home
  • Improve ventilation in your home.
  • Installing a sump system in the basement.

If you want or need the assistance of a professional, there are several resources for you to use. You can use the list of certified radon attenuators for your state, you can reference the Web page of the EPA radon testing, or you can reference these resources useful EPA and radon.com.

Have you ever tested your home for radon? How did you wrong?

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