Featured, For Buyers, Real Estate

Is the Air in Your Home Giving You Lung Cancer?

With January being National Radon Action month, I thought I’d take a minute to remind you of the need to test and be aware of the level of radon in your home. Radon is a colorless, odorless cancer-causing radioactive gas that creeps into homes from the ground. It is produced from the natural breakdown of uranium in soil, rock, and water. Radon is found in the air everywhere, but radon can accumulate in high levels inside your home where you and your family spend most of your time. The EPA estimates that 21,000 people die each year from exposure to radon and it is the second leading cause of lung cancer according to the Surgeon General.

I moved my family into a new home in August of this year. I knew that there was a chance of radon being an issue in our home prior to us purchasing the property due to our location in a “Moderate Potential” county according to the EPA (see the EPA Zone Map). We didn’t test the home prior to moving in because there is a potential for a false-negative if the seller can alter the test by opening windows in the home during, or within a few hours before, the testing phase. (I always recommend to my buyers to do a test for themselves after moving into a property to ensure that they have an accurate reading of the true level of radon in the home.)

After moving in, I hired a home inspector that I trust to test our level of radon. To my surprise, the result was much higher than I had expected. Our home came in at 24 pCi/L. To say this is high is an understatement. The EPA currently recommends that homes be remediated at levels of 4 pCi/L and above, however, Congress has set a long-term goal of levels in homes/schools/etc be no more than outdoor levels (about 0.4 pCi/L). Needless to say, when we got our results, we called a remediation company right away. That same week, our home was remediated (for about $1000) and our most recent radon level has come in at 0.7 pCi/L.

We will continue to test our home every year to ensure that the level doesn’t rise, but for now, the air in our home is healthier for our family.

If you don’t know the level in your home (or haven’t checked it within the past 24 months), I would encourage you to test it right away. We used a home inspector that does not do remediation services himself. This way, there was no incentive for him to give us an exaggerated reading. You can also do testing yourself with test kits purchased online or at local home improvement stores. Some states even offer low-cost or free radon test kits to their residents.

After testing, I then researched to find the best/most recommended remediation company to fix our home. For those of you not in the metro DC area, I would encourage you to look for remediation companies recommended by sites such as Angie’s List. I have a list of the companies and products that we used to test and fix our radon issue on our home below. If you want more information about the dangers of radon in your home, I would encourage you to read “A Citizen’s Guide to Radon” written by the EPA.

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Radon Resources

Radon test kits:
Highly rated test kit from RTCA – Radon Testing Corporation of America

Discounted test kits offered by the National Radon Program Services at Kansas State University

Radon Inspector that I used (for those in the metro DC area):
Glen Blanc with Pro Spex

Radon Remediation Company that I used (for those in the metro DC area):
Radon Abatement Services

EPA Video on Radon for Home Buyers/Sellers

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