If you’re wondering what is radon, you are certainly not alone. Many people throughout the country, if asked about radon, would wonder just that – what is radon? But the answer to what is radon can be a frightening one, as radon is a gas that is undetectable to the naked eye as well as odorless and tasteless. And radon can have considerable consequences too – so if you’re wondering what is radon, it’s better to have your home tested for radon than to live in doubt.
Radon can have some serious long term implications on your health, particularly when it comes to the development of lung cancer. In fact, radon has been known to cause as many as twenty thousand lung cancer related deaths each and every year here in the United States alone, making it the second leading cause of lung cancer all throughout the country, truly showing the risks of radon exposure on a whole. In fact, for every one hundred Bq/m increase of radon that is seen over the course of time, your lung cancer risk will rise by an astounding sixteen percent, putting you at risk for lung cancer not only in the here and the now, but in the present as well.
And unfortunately, more homes than the average person would think are impacted by high levels of radon all throughout the United States, especially since radon itself can be difficult to detect without the help of radon testing companies. And many people simply don’t know what to look for, wondering what is radon in the first place, or don’t even know that radon exists or poses any kind of threat at all. But in reality, it has been discovered that many people are at risk from the levels of radon exposure that can be found in their homes and in other such places of residence that they inhabit.
In fact, up to one out of every fifteen homes was found to have extremely high radon levels. These radon levels exceeded the action level that was set by the Environmental Protection Agency (or the EPA, as it is more commonly referred to), which means that the people living in these homes and places of residence are at a considerable risk from the radon that surrounds them – making them more at risk for health problems such as lung cancer down the line. And one third of all homes on Native American reservations were found to have such high radon levels as well, putting these populations at an even greater risk than the general population of the United States.
Fortunately, there are steps that even the average person will be able to take to effectively and efficiently lower the total radon exposure that they are exposed to on a daily basis in their homes. First of all, it’s very important to be educated on the subject of radon. Knowing what is radon is the first step, and after the question of what is radon has been answered, it’s very important to learn about the risks that radon poses as well, especially those risks that can all too easily prove to be life threatening.
Once you have learned about radon, you should hire a radon testing company to conduct residential radon testing in your home. Residential radon testing services are likely to start with short term radon testing, which will last no longer than ninety days. However, if the need is there, long term residential radon testing can be conducted past that threshold as well.
If radon has been detected in your home – and if the levels of radon in your home are above what is deemed to be healthy levels of radon (or safe levels of radon, as you might say instead), radon mitigation services are likely to be necessary. Fortunately, radon mitigation companies will be able to help you to reduce, if not even totally eliminate, the levels of radon seen in your home, something that could even end up being life saving in the long run – or at least health saving.