Closely Considering The Incredible Importance Of Radon Testing In Your Home
If you live in the United States, your threat of radon exposure is relatively high. After all, the data that has been gathered on the subject is more than in support of this claim, showing that up to one home out of every 15 homes has levels of radon that are so high as to meet the action level (or even exceed this action level, for that matter) that has been set by the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency). Sadly, this means that many people are experiencing up to 35 times the radiation they would even if they were standing at the fence of a radioactive waste site, a jarring image indeed.
And in some parts of the United States, the prominence of radon is even greater. In up to seven states in just this one country alone, up to a full one third of all homes have these incredibly high levels of radon. Sadly, at least three Native American reservations also have concentrations of radon in as many homes. But why, exactly, is this such a negative thing? If you know anything about radiation, you’ll know the answer – the health risk that is posed by long term radon exposure is nothing that should be taken lightly.
As a matter of fact, long term exposure to radon – particularly high levels of it over a considerable period of time – have been found to increase your risk of lung cancer considerably. And if radon levels in your home continue to grow, so will your overall lung cancer risk. Research into the subject more than backs up this claim, showing that for each increase of radon by 100 Bq per m, your overall risk of developing lung cancer actually increases by a full 16%. It should come as no real shock, therefore, that lung cancer is now considered by the United States surgeon general to be the second leading cause of lung cancer in the entirety of the United States, leading to as many as 20,000 total related deaths in the scope and scale and of just one single year.
But what can you do to mitigate your risk factors? How can you stay safe from radon exposure, especially when the radon gas itself is odorless, invisible to the naked eye, and tasteless? Fortunately, residential radon testing services can be found at just about any radon testing company. And fortunately, the prominence of the radon testing company has itself only continued to grow and grow over the course of recent years. Typically, a radon testing company will conduct one of two radon tests in your home. Short term radon tests, which can last anywhere from a mere 2 days to a full 90 days (a nearly three month time span), are often utilized in the process of radon testing and inspection. But long term tests, which last for more than 90 days, can also be utilized with ease by a radon testing company.
And what if the radon testing company does find that the radon levels in your home are very high? Fortunately, there are again steps that can be taken. Your radon testing company will be able to guide you in the process of radon mitigation as well. Fortunately, you can drop your home’s overall radon levels by as much as a full 50% just through utilizing various passive methods of radon mitigation and abatement. And tools like a radon ventilation fan can be brought in if the radon levels must still be brought down to safe levels after the process of radon mitigation occurs through the use of strictly passive levels. At the end of the day, this should bring a lot of comfort to those throughout the United States who have become perhaps worried about the radon levels in their own home.
Ultimately, as any radon testing company can tell you, the threat of radon exposure is a very real one indeed, far more common than the average person might think, at least initially. Fortunately, the aid of a company like a radon testing company can actually go quite a long way towards lowering radon levels throughout the country here in the United States.
