Green Starts From The Ground Up
January is National Radon Action Month. According to the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), exposure to radon in the home is responsible for an estimated 20,000 lung cancer deaths each year and is the second leading cause of lung cancer in the U.S. Although testing for radon is easy and inexpensive, 80 percent of the homes in the U.S. have not been tested. Nearly 1 out of every 15 homes in the U.S. is estimated to have elevated radon levels. Radon is a colorless, odorless, tasteless gas that is best detected when doors and windows are all tightly closed.
Radon is a radioactive gas produced from the uranium which is in the geological formation under the soil. The amount or radon gas varies depending on the amount of uranium in the formation. The type of soil under the house, the design of the house and the life style or the family living in the house all affect the amount of radon gas that enters a home.
The only way to know if you and your family are at risk from radon is to test your home for radon or have it tested by a certified professional radon tester. For do-it-yourselfers, radon kits can be purchased for $25 at building supply, hardware and general merchandise stores. A basic test takes 10 minutes to set up and when complete is mailed to a lab for analysis.
If test results are above the EPA recommended action level you need to have the radon level reduced by a certified radon ‘mitigator.’ Reducing radon is not technically difficult and costs approximately $800 – $2,500.
Tune into Property Source Radio with the Fixie Chick, Saturday morning at 9 am to learn four easy things you as homeowners, renters, and parents can do to take action in January.
Thanks for reading,
-The Fixie Chick
Here is another link for radon information:
http://www.epa.gov/radon/nram/event_kit.html
Tags: brenna hartmann, cancer, fixie chick, health, homeowner, January, national radon month, radon kit, radon levels, radon test