What is Radon?

Radon is a cancer-causing radioactive gas. You cannot see, smell or taste radon but it may be a problem in your home. When you breathe air containing radon, you increase your risk of developing lung cancer. In fact, the Surgeon General has warned that radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer in the United States today. if you smoke and your home has high radon levels, your risk of lung cancer is especially high.

Radon is a colorless, chemically inactive inert gas. The gas and it’s highly radioactive metallic daughter products emit alpha and beta particles and gamma rays. In homes and other building, radon can reach levels regarded as dangerous.

How Does Radon enter your house?

As radon gas moves up through the soil, it can be drawn into your home through air pressure differences. The air pressure inside your home is usually lower than the pressure in the soil around the foundation and basement floor slab. Any home can have a radon problem – new or old, well sealed or drafter, with or without basements.

If you are buying an existing home.

The EPA recommends that you obtain the indoor radon level of a home you are considering buying. Ask the seller for radon test results. If the seller has a radon reduction system installed, ask them for information about the system (i.e. Who installed it? What were the before and after radon levels? ect.).

How to know if you have elevated levels or Radon?

Testing is the only way to know if a person’s home has elevated radon levels. Indoor radon levels are affected by the soil composition under and around the house, and the ease with which radon enters the house. Homes that are next door to each other can have different indoor radon levels, making a neighbor’s test result a poor predictor of radon risk. In addition, precipitation, barometric pressure, and other influences can cause radon levels to vary from month to month or day to day, which is why both short and long-term tests are available.

It is very important that every house should be tested for radon. Radon testing and mitigation if very inexpensive when compared to the devastation and cost lung cancer can cause.

Sherlock Homes Property Services offers the following Radon Services: Radon Testing, Radon Mitigation, and we also provide information to the homeowner of the harmful side effects that Radon Gas can cause.