Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Keep Your Family Healthy and Safe With Radon Testing

According to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), it is estimated that radon causes 21,000 lung cancer deaths per year. This number is far greater than the number of deaths caused by drunk driving or fire incidents. This information was taken from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's 2005-2006 National Center for Injury Prevention and Control Report and 2006 National Safety Council Reports. Because of the seriousness and alarming numbers, the government is encouraging everyone to keep your family healthy and safe by conducting radon testing for your home.

What is radon?

Radon is a "silent killing" odorless, colorless and tasteless radioactive gas coming from the breakdown of uranium found under the soil and rocks of your home. Radon can be present in the air that you breathe and the water that you drink. If you are someone who smokes and you have a high level of radon in your home, your risk of developing lung cancer is extremely high.

How healthy and safe is it inside your home?

If you haven't checked your home for radon, the best time to do it is now. Today, there are different ways to check for radon in your home. You can do it yourself with radon test kits that are fairly inexpensive and easy to follow. But, if you are buying a home, you might find it useful and wise to combine the services from your local home inspector. A local home inspector that is certified in radon testing can perform your property inspection and add on the service of radon testing. It will save you money when combining services and you'll have expert knowledge from a certified inspector.

What If There Are High Concentrations Of Radon In My House?

It's quite simple. If you find out that you have high levels of radon in your home, you should do something about it. You can protect yourself from radon if you know how it gets into your home. As the radon is escaping from the soil and rocks, it is trying to disperse into the atmosphere. Normally, radon doesn't affect us when it is combined with a vast atmosphere of oxygen, carbon dioxide and nitrogen. However, when radon gas is trapped or enclosed, it becomes concentrated and dangerous to the human body. So, if radon gas is escaping from the rocks and soil into your home, it still hasn't escaped into a safe atmosphere. Therefore, you can prevent radon from getting into your breathing air by installing a vent pipe and extracting the radon gas away from your home. This is known as the sub-slab depressurization. Just so you know, no, you cannot seal your home well enough so that radon doesn't leak in. According to the EPA, it's not effective in preventing radon gas from getting into your home.

Radon has been discovered in areas that have a high levels of granite concentration. But, it has also been found in locations without much granite. Therefore, it's important to be cautious and approach radon testing on a case-by-case examination. You really can't predict where high levels of radon could be lurking. So, protect your family's health and ensure your home doesn't become the place where radon gas gets trapped as it is trying to escape from the rocks and soil beneath.

Champia Real Estate Inspections provides commercial and residential home inspections in the Atlanta, GA, Tampa,FL and Orlando, FL areas with ASHI certified home inspectors. Our certified inspectors will deliver complete residential reports within 24 hours, with commercial inspection reports returned within 4 days.

No comments:

Post a Comment