WHAT IS RADON?

Radon is a naturally occurring gas that comes from the decay of uranium in the soil and can have a big impact on indoor air quality and your health. You can't see or smell it, and radon can build up inside homes, buildings and schools to dangerous levels. Exposure to high levels of radon can cause lung cancer. Learn about radon, how it affects lung health and what you can do about it. 

Radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer in the United States, responsible for thousands of deaths each year. Exposure to radon causes no immediate symptoms, but the long-term threat of lung cancer is significant to everyone. People who have never smoked make up approximately 2,900 of the estimated 21,000 radon-related lung cancer deaths each year. 

The health hazard comes from radioactive particles released when radon decays. These particles can be inhaled into the lung and bombard your cells with dangerous, cancer-causing radiation. Smoking and radon exposure can separately increase the risk of lung cancer. But if you smoke, know that exposure to both greatly enhances the risk of lung cancer.

There is no debate about radon being a lung carcinogen in humans. All major national and international organizations that have examined the health risks of radon agree that it is a lung carcinogen. The scientific community continues to conduct research to refine our understanding of the precise number of deaths attributable to radon. The National Academy of Sciences has estimated that radon causes about 15,000 to 22,000 lung cancer deaths annually. Major scientific organizations continue to believe that approximately 12% of lung cancers annually in the United States are attributable to radon.

Now, my job is not to convince you of the damaging effects of radon, I'll let the scientists work on that.... 

My goal is to provide fast, accurate, dependable results to my client who wants to know what their property or potential property's radon levels are.  

Radon testing devices are placed in accordance with IEMA's measurement protocol and exposed to the indoor air for a minimum of 48 hours.  These devices are then picked up and the data is entered into a computer program that interprets this data and converts it into picocuries, the unit of measure when measuring radon levels in a home. 

If the property test results come back at 4.0 pCi/L or higher, it is recommended that a mitigation system be installed to reduce the radon levels down to an acceptable level.

(In Illinois its 3.9pCi/L or lower, in extreme cases mitigation is only required to get it as low as reasonably possible.)

Once a system is installed, it is recommended to test again to ensure the system is effective in reducing the radon levels.