Image by Tom Courbat (Flickr)
Scientists agree that radon gas causes the most damage during long-term exposure. In fact, no one really knows what kind of effect the deadly gas has on the body in shorter time spans. Since it increases the risk of lung cancer, it’s likely that the total risk is increased for your lifetime after you’re exposed. This could mean you’ll get cancer after a year of exposure, or after several years — it really just depends.
Since radon gas is the second leading cause of lung cancer in many countries — including the US, Canada, UK and more — it’s obvious that it’s a pretty serious issue. What really drives that point home, is that in the US alone there are more than 21,000 deaths each year due to radon-induced lung cancer. Yes, radon gas kills that many people every year in this country. It is a proven fact, not a myth.
Unfortunately, it can take a long time to test for radon gas and have a mitigation system installed if a problem is discovered. This is unfortunate, because sometimes it can leave families exposed to the deadly gas for a year or more.
Testing for Radon and Mitigation Takes Time, Increasing Your Exposure Risk
The way testing for radon works, it can take anywhere from a few months to a year to get the results. First, you want to conduct a short term test — whether you do-it-yourself or a hire a professional. This involves leaving the testing equipment in the home for several days and then sending it out to a lab for analyzation. If elevated levels are discovered, then it’s recommended to conduct a long-term test. This involves the same process, but leaving the testing equipment in the home for longer so as to get a better reading on the average levels in the home over an extended period. After the test has been finished, again the samples must be sent to a laboratory for analyzation. Finally, if all of these tests confirm elevated levels are indeed a problem in the home, it’s time to move on to the mitigation process. To sum it all up, testing for radon can take a long time and that’s not even factoring in mitigation.
During mitigation, a professional radon contractor will come to your home, assess the layout and then install a ventilation system to remove the gas from your home. Not to knock on contractors — some of them are quite efficient — but we all know how long projects like this can take. It seems like you hire a contractor for something and it takes forever, often longer than it should. This can be due to complications in the install process or it could just be due to the involvement and responsibilities of the work. Either way, it can take a long time.
Why does all of this matter you ask? During the time you’re testing for radon, and a mitigation system is being installed — if there is a problem — then your family is being exposed to radon gas during that time. This can lead to a year — sometimes even longer — that a family continues to be exposed to the deadly gas. This may not seem like much in the grand scheme, but when you add that to existing time your family might have been exposed it adds up.
Say you’ve been in your home for five years, and it takes another year to get everything squared away. It’s not tough to do that math. That’s a total of six years — maybe more — that you or your family were exposed to radon gas. That’s plenty of time for it to do damage to your bodies. Most people have no idea about testing for radon gas in their home and so they don’t do it for years. Awareness is a problem too, because it’s one of the biggest reasons why families are exposed to the deadly gas for so long.
Testing for Radon ASAP Is Important
Image by Yale Rosen
That is exactly why we say you need to act fast. Don’t waste time, start testing for radon today; whether you test it yourself or hire someone. You can pick up a DIY testing kit for $10 – $20 at any local hardware store or online. If you don’t want to handle it yourself, you can hire an experienced radon professional and often they’ll do a consultation for free — which may or may not include initial testing for radon.
It’s important to note, this is not a ploy on our part to sell a product, peddle radon mitigation contractors or professionals or even make money. We have nothing to gain by informing you that you should be testing for radon gas. This is a serious problem and it needs to be addressed that’s exactly why we’re so adamant about it.
More than 21,000 Americans die each year due to radon-induced lung cancer. Yes, we repeated that stats and we’ll do it again. More than 21,000 die every year because of radon. Every year.
Need we say more? Start testing for radon gas as soon as possible. Begin the process — which could take a long time — before it’s too late. If most people affected by radon-induced lung cancer could go back and prevent the problem or at least try to, it’s likely they would do so. Exposure to radon gas is easily preventable. Don’t make the mistake of ignoring the problem.
