Radon Testing

[W1RKW]

Many of us have shacks in the basement of our homes.  Just wondering if you've ever been concerned about radon.  I always think of it as I spend a lot of time below ground level.  Have any of you ever tested for radon?  I may do that.   According to USGS my area has heavy concentrations of radon. And with new homes being more airtight it becomes a concern.

[KB2WIG]

The bank wanted the test.
The level was too high.
The bank did not lend me the money untill the homeowner put in a system....

klc

[KE6DF]

Not a formal test, but I did run around the house with a Geiger counters testing things.

I found that the granite counters in the Kitchen were slightly above background level.

My calculation is that if you spend a few hours a day in the kitchen, in a year it equals about one extra dental xray.

Not enough to worry about.

The background level in the house, outside of the kitchen was about the same as outdoors.

But in my area we don't generally have Radon problems.

BTW, I live in the Sacramento area and about 25 miles from here, up in the sierra foothills there is a town that has a problem with asbestos. The rocks in the area are rich in it and it gets kicked up by construction or even by kids playing in the parks and school playgrounds. There are extra disclosures real estate agents must do when selling homes in that town.

[W1AEX]

I tested my basement back in the 80's with a radon kit and found that it was in the acceptable range, but on the high side of that range. I found one major entry path to be an unused 6" diameter drain hole where the water tank for the well used to be located. After sealing that up and then using some "concrete caulk" substance, marketed for discouraging radon entry, to plug up cracks in the basement walls, a re-test showed that the levels were back in the middle of the acceptable range. I haven't tested it since, but your post is a good reminder to check it again. Connecticut seems to have some "hot spots" due to the kinds of rock formations common to our area. I'm sort of glad that my "amusement room" is located on the second floor of the house now that I have retired and spend much of the winter in this room with all my toys!

[KB2WIG]

FWIW,



http://www.epa.gov/radon/pubs/citguide.html


klc

[K5UJ]

Bob,

Like you I wondered about the radon situation with my basement shack and house.   To make an informed decision you need three things:  Data about your QTH,  A frame of reference to put it in, and information that can allow you to decide if you need to take further action.

Getting an accurate assessment takes time.   You can buy a radon testing kit, usually at drug stores.  I got one for 10 or 15 dollars that involved placing a piece of material in my basement a few feet off the floor and away from the furnace.   You leave it there in an out of the way place for a year.   Time increases accuracy of the assessed level.   Then you send it off to a lab and a week or two later, you get a card with your level in I think picocuries / liter of volume.     The kit has a postage paid box you mail the detector in, and the Lab fee is included in the kit price.   You just have to put the detector away and forget about it for a year.    I forgot about mine and wound up sending it in after 15 months but that was okay.  Even more time increased the accuracy of the evaluation.   I had 4.6 pc/L.  I think the EPA limit is 4, above which you are supposed to do something.

Okay, but what was left out of the result was a frame of reference.  Was 4.6 sky high, as in lung cancer imminent?   Or statistically not anything to worry about?

The remediation businesses will come in and for around $2000 or more, they'll put in duct work and concrete sealer, and blowers to vent your air outside with heat exchangers that keep the heat indoors.   But they only guarantee that they'll get you below the EPA action threshold, they don't say they'll completely eliminate radon from your home.   

I went on-line and started googling around and found some studies done in Pennsylvania where the radon level is very high in some places.  I don't remember the details now, but it turned out that statistically, radon is a factor in lung cancer cases when it is real high, like around 100 pc / L.   4.6 was statistically meaningless (BTW, I am an ex-smoker so I was concerned because of that also).   I could have blown a lot of money on it and gotten my level down to 3.8 or something, but there are other factors in my environment like particulate exhaust from diesel motors that probably pose a bigger risk.   Getting from 4.6 down to 3.8 would not have altered my chances which were already the same as anyone else below the EPA limit.  Bottom line:  get the test done, and if you are way up there, like 20, 30 or more and especially if you smoke or used to, you should do something--just coating the floor with epoxy paint can make a difference--otherwise  it's more of a racket than anything else.

73

Rob

[Art]

I inspect homes for environmental issues. Radon is the number two cause of lung cancer. You know what number one is. The threshold of action is 4pCi/l and the process is very clearly defined on the EPA web site. Colorado happens to be very "rich" in Radon as there's lots of granite with Uranium in it. Radon is a decay product of Uranium. The decay products of Radon are the source of alpha particles that damage your lung cells. Generally those decay products ride on dust and other normal indoor pollutants.
OK, that's the what. Now what to do. Go to your local Home Depot or other place like that and get a kit for about 20 bucks, follow the instructions, and get your results. (Alternatively you can call me in to do a continuous monitoring to profile the Radon concentration on an hourly basis for a couple of days and provide specific mitigation recommendations at about 10 times the cost of the HD kit.) Once you have your results: outdoors is about 0.4pCi/l, indoors most places is about 1.5. Anything above about 2 and you might want to consider doing something about it. Above 4 and you (IAW the EPA) must. The good news is subslab depressurization is relatively cheap and can usually be accomplished in a day.
Ref: http://www.epa.gov/radon/pubs/citguide.html#howtotest
Art