Radon Detection and Mitigation - A Scam?

[DrPizza]

The abatement guys are in your house for a few minutes. You're there for the majority of the day or at least several hours sleeping. The length of exposure time is pretty key here.

Also, you're exactly right on the dust particle comment. The half life of radon is roughly 3.8 days and I doubt you can hold your breath long enough to get much exposure through just the radon that decays in the air.

But the radon is usually pretty confined to the basement. Thus, radon abatement professionals might actually spend more time in radon contaminated basements than the typical homeowner.

 

[kevman]

when I sold my house the buyer had the clause in the contract, but in an area of supposedly high levels my house only was at around .18.

The builder for our new house automatically installed the mitigation equipment regardless of the test results.

 

[Mark R]

Necro thread, but no one has pointed out yet that Radon is an inert gas. It doesn't react chemically. It's not absorbed by your body. If you inhale one or two atoms, you exhale those one or two atoms.

You neglected the fact that it is a high-energy alpha emitter. Not only that, but once it decays, it leaves a nice long chain of alpha-emitting daughters behind. As radon is a gas, it is inhaled, and the lungs are very radiation sensitive organs.

ICRP rate alpha-particles 20x as dangerous as beta/gamma on an equivalent (Gray for Gray) basis, so internal alpha irradiation carries a surprisingly high "biologically effective dose".

At the EPA limit of 4 pCi/l, you would receive a radiation dose of about 1 µSv/h, or 8 mSv per year. That's about 4x the normal natural background radiation, and represents an estimated 1 in 35 excess early cancer death during a life time (based on current knowledge of radiation biology). Obviously, this depends on the amount of time you stay in the at-risk area (which is mainly the basement, but in some cases, it can leak into the ground floor).

It's quite easy to see this. Your lungs contain, on average about 2 litres of air. If the Rn concentration is 4 pCi/l, that means you get 20 disintegrations per minute in your lungs, and as they are alpha, almost every disintegration will result in a hit of biological tissue (lung tissue is sponge like, and alpha particles are immediately absorbed by solid tissue).

 

[radoncontrol]

Hi Guys,

it's been three years since this thread started. Since then, many things have changed here in Canada. Health Canada released new radon study. This document confirms that 16% of all lung cancers are caused by radon gas exposure. That is over 3200 deaths per year in Canada (16% would be 25K in US).

Radon is colorless, odorless, tasteless radioactive gas, so it is very easy to start to believe that it is a scam. But it is NOT! There are real victims. You can find real stories here:

Contact your local government or health office, they might send you free radon test-kit.

Many new facts have been released about radon gas and radon testing. I feel like we should start this discussion again.

Here are some credible resources if you are interested:

http://www.whatisradon.ca/radon-resources.html

 

[edro]

World Health Organization - HANDBOOK ON INDOOR RADON

According to this study, residential exposure can increase your lung cancer risk by 8-11%.

I think it would be good to get your house checked, especially if you have a finished basement or bedroom in the basement. If the levels are extremely high and you spend a lot of time there, you might be at higher risk.

8-11% is nothing in a study that size.
I could flip a coin 1000 times and come up with the same variation.

 

[bignateyk]

What I want to know is how can they tell if lung cancer is caused by radon and not one of the other ten thousand pollutants we breathe every day? I'm not saying it's a scam, but I also think it's a little exaggerated.

The guys that install Radon mitigation systems are completely ripping you off. Before I became handy I paid about $2000 at our last house to have it done before we sold it. At our new house I did it myself for $300.

All you need to do is buy a test kit, then get some PVC and a radon fan, and drill a couple holes in your slab.

DIY Radon Mitigation: http://www.kansasradonprogram.org/files/kansasradonprogram/KS%20DIY%20Mitigation%20Drawings%20Fact%20Sheet.pdf

 

[purbeast0]

you are about to spend $300k - $400k on a house, and $150 is of concern to you?

EDIT:

son of a bitch, necrod by a spammer...

 

[Phokus]

http://hotair.com/greenroom/archives/2009/12/13/the-epas-other-hockey-stick-the-radon-scam/

Heh, the fact that you link to a lunatic rightwing blog pretty much says Radon is a legitimate concern.

 

[D1gger]

Hi Guys,

it's been three years since this thread started. Since then, many things have changed here in Canada. Health Canada released new radon study. This document confirms that 16% of all lung cancers are caused by radon gas exposure. That is over 3200 deaths per year in Canada (16% would be 25K in US).

Radon is colorless, odorless, tasteless radioactive gas, so it is very easy to start to believe that it is a scam. But it is NOT! There are real victims. You can find real stories here:

Contact your local government or health office, they might send you free radon test-kit.

Many new facts have been released about radon gas and radon testing. I feel like we should start this discussion again.

Here are some credible resources if you are interested:

This is a complete misrepresentation of the report and the data presented.

It states that 16% of smokers who have lung cancer also have high levels of radon in their home. If it is high radon alone, the number falls to 5%.

http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/ewh-semt/alt...smokers-fumeurs/radon_smokers-fumeurs-eng.pdf

Spammer's links removed, but post left in for continuity of this necroed thread.