Date Published: 12/09/2019 [Source]
None of our five senses can detect the presence of radon. Radon has no short-term health effects that are noticeable in humans. But in many cases, long term radon exposure can go unnoticed until it's too late.
Radon is a radioactive gas that forms naturally when uranium, thorium, or radium, break down in rocks, soil and groundwater. People can be exposed to radon primarily from breathing contaminated air that comes through cracks and gaps in buildings and homes or openings around sump pumps or drains.
Timothy Ungs, MD with Regional Health Urgent Care, says, "You can inhale it potentially … eventually it goes to lead, thorium, some other things. It can attack the lining of the lung, and that is the concern, it's the second most known cause for lung cancer. "
Since radon is colorless, odorless, and tasteless. It's invisible. The only way to detect it is through a test.
Tests are conducted in the lowest level of a home, typically a basement bedroom. The tester takes a sample of air every hour for 48 hours. Brad says the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency wants levels below 4.0 and if your home tests higher, a ventilation system should be in place.
Owner of Black Hills Professional Home Inspections, Brad Banks, says, "A mitigation system with a fan that sucks it out from underneath the slab of the house or the crawlspace and pushes the radon back outside."
If your level was found using a short term (2-4 day) test and the level is between 4-8 pCi/L, the EPA recommendation is to conduct further testing using a Long Term Test Kit (3-12 month).