It seems as if there are constant alerts warning us of yet another health hazard. Is radon really a risk to your family's health? Should elevated radon levels be reduced to protect your family and your investment? According to the US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) and a number of scientific studies, the answer to both questions is yes. For more details on radon, see Radon Information.
Protect your potential sale. By obtaining advance knowledge of your home's radon levels, you
avoid surprises. You can rest easy if radon is below the USEPA's recommended action level
(below 4.0 picocuries per liter). You can choose to take action if the radon is above the
USEPA action level, thereby eliminating radon as an issue during the sale of your home.
Protect your family. Elevated levels of radon in a home have been determined to be a
major
health hazard. However, radon can easily be treated by a qualified radon professional with
proper radon insurance coverage and transferable guarantees.
Protect your investment. For most of us, our homes are our biggest investments. Just
as
maintenance and improvements protect the value of our home, so does the elimination of
radon. Replacing an old, leaky roof adds value to your home. Putting in a radon reduction
system, installed and guaranteed by Indiana Radon also adds value. In fact, many builders
have found that it makes sense to have a radon system installed during construction.
Radon tests for air or water are available through Indiana Radon. If you have
already
tested for radon and the level is above 4.0 picocuries per liter and/or your waterborne
radon level is above 4,000 pCi/L, contact us to schedule a free evaluation and cost proposal
of a Radon Mitigation System.
Radon Technology installs Active Soil Depressurization systems, which
are the only systems approved by the USEPA for radon reduction.
System locations used to reduce radon vary depending on the construction of the
home.
This technique prevents radon from entering your home.
For example, soil suction prevents radon from entering your home by drawing radon
from below
the house and venting it through a pipe to the air above the house where it is quickly
diluted.
Mitigation to an existing home usually costs between between $900 and $1400, with an
average
of about $1,200.
For more information on mitigation techniques used, consult EPA's Consumer's Guide to Radon Reduction.
Based on a national residential radon survey completed in 1991, the average indoor radon level is 1.3 picocuries per liter (pCi/L) in the United States. The average outdoor level is about 0.4 pCi/L.
There is no debate about radon being a lung carcinogen in humans. All major national and international organizations that have examined the health risks of radon agree that it is a lung carcinogen. The scientific community continues to conduct research to refine our understanding of the precise number of deaths attributable to radon. The National Academy of Sciences BEIR VI Report has estimated that radon causes about 15,000 to 22,000 lung cancer deaths annually based on their two-preferred models. A few scientists have questioned whether low radon levels, such as those found in residences, increase the risk of lung cancer because some small studies of radon and lung cancer in residences have produced varied results. Some have shown a relationship between radon and lung cancer, some have not. However, the national and international scientific communities are in agreement that all of these residential studies have been too small to provide conclusive information about radon health risks. Major scientific organizations continue to believe that approximately 12% of lung cancers annually in the United States are attributable to radon.
The World Health Organization (WHO), the National Academy of Sciences,
the US Department of Health and Human Services, as well as EPA, have classified radon as a
known human carcinogen, because of the wealth of biological and epidemiological evidence and
data showing the connection between exposure to radon and lung cancer in humans.
There have been many studies conducted by many different organizations in many nations
around the world to examine the relationship of radon exposure and human lung cancer. The
largest and most recent of these was an international study, led by the National Cancer
Institute (NCI), which examined the data on 68,000 underground miners who were exposed to a
wide range of radon levels. The studies of miners are very useful because the subjects are
humans, not rats, as in many cancer research studies. These miners are dying of lung cancer
at 5 times the rate expected for the general population. Over many years scientists around
the world have conducted exhaustive research to verify the cause-effect relationship between
radon exposure and the observed increased lung cancer deaths in these miners and to
eliminate other possible causes.
In addition, there is an overlap between radon exposures received by miners who got
lung
cancer and the exposures people would receive over their lifetime in a home at EPA's action
level of 4 pCi/L, i.e., there are no large extrapolations involved in estimating radon risks
in homes.