Planning For Radon Mitigation In Your New Home

The prevalence of Radon Gas in the soils in areas around the United States is an issue of growing concern. Radon has been deemed the number 1 cause of lung cancer in non-smokers in a study done at the University of Iowa. Radon gas is found in varying levels in almost all regions of the country. Visit the EPA's Radon Map Zone at the following link.

Radon Map Zone Areas in Pink pose the highest risk followed by Orange and Yellow. Click here to check the specific risk level in your county.

If your planned home is in an area of higher risk, you should plan early on to install a Radon Mitigation System. In many areas now, a test is required with each real-estate transaction regarding residential properties and this will probably expand to include most of the higher risk areas. In any event, your health is well worth the small investment to install such a system.

Installing the basics of the system in a Basement or Slab-On-Grade Foundation consists of inserting a perforated pipe below the slab in crushed rock and stubbing up a connector into the basement. Venting this pipe to the exterior (away from any windows in your house or your neighbors, preferably up through the roof), contitutes what is known as a Passive Radon Mitigation System. If , after your house is complete, a test determines that levels are still too high, you may have to convert to an Active Radon Mitigation System by installing a fan than runs continuously which creates low pressure under the slab and increases the rate of gas evacuation. So you will want to have the slab penetration in an area that is readily accessible and has electric available to power the fan.

Many times the fan is located in the attic, particularly if your foundation is slab-on-grade or crawl space. Also remember that you will want to make sure that the vent through the roof does not allow water to fall down the pipe to the slab below, this would not be a good thing for several reasons.

Designing and installing the infrastructure for a passive system can be accomplished for about $150 to $300. this will save you 150-300% of the cost of retrofitting. An Active systems will add $ 250-$550 depending on the size of your home. Download Build Radon Out; a guide on the design and construction of Radon Mitigation Systems and 'Model Standards and Techniques for Control of Radon Gas'.

Radon & Lung Cancer

Radiation is called the "complete carcinogen" because, unlike chemical carcinogens, it alone can initiate, promote and propagate cancer. The primary site of radioactive exposure to most people is their home. The average person receives a higher radiation dose from radon at home than from all other natural or man-made sources combined.

Radon is a proven and very potent "Class A" carcinogen. Safety limits on toxins or carcinogens in food or water are set at levels thousand times less lethal than what is the risk from radon in an average American home. "Radon in residential homes causes more deaths than fires, drowning and airplane crashes combined." (EPA)
The lung cancer crisis

After smoking, "radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer." (Surgeon General) Among non-smokers, radon is the No. 1 cause of lung cancer deaths beating out second hand smoking.
Lung cancer is the leading cancer killer of all Americans, both men and women, claiming 160,000 lives every year - more than breast cancer, prostate cancer, and colorectal cancer combined. Over 171,000 cases of new lung cancers are diagnosed in the U.S. each year.

The leading three causes of cancer deaths Men & Women:

Lung cancer 33% Lung cancer 24%
Prostate cancer 12% Breast cancer 18%
Colorectal cancer 10% Colorectal cancer 11%

Lung cancer is the deadliest of all cancers – its 5-year survival rate is only 10 to 14 percent. By the time people develop symptoms (shortness of breath, coughing, bloody sputum), the cancer has grown to the size of an orange or has spread to other organs. While the death rates for many types of cancer have been declining during the last 60 years, the age-adjusted incidence and mortality rates for lung cancer have been rising.

There is a lung cancer crisis, particularly among women. Lung cancer deaths have increased by 20% among men during the past two decades but by 150% among women, and in the 1990's alone, lung cancer deaths of white females have increased 60%.

Should You Test for Radon?

(Source: Chris Robertson)

Most people don't think much about Radon, and yet Radon can have a major impact on their health and that of their families. That's because Radon can seep into homes and contaminate the air inside. That's a major reason for concern as Radon is a major cause of lung cancer, second only after cigarette smoking. In fact, the US Environmental Protection Agency estimates that there are over 20,000 deaths in the United States every year due to exposure to Radon. How are we getting exposed to Radon, and what can a homeowner do about it?

Radon is a gas that is formed naturally when uranium in rock, soil and groundwater breaks down. The Radon gas then finds its way up to the surface. Unlike other forms of pollution or dangerous gasses, you can neither see nor smell Radon. Most of the time, Radon harmlessly dissipates into the atmosphere outdoors, as it has for millions of years, and it isn't a problem at all. It does become a problem when it finds its way into your house. How can that happen?
In many ways. What happens is that the Radon gas in the soil under your home collects in the void and air spaces under the foundation slab and gradually enters the home. It can also enter through cracks in foundations or even through showers and drainage sumps. Most new homes have much better insulation than in the past, of so the Radon gas becomes trapped indoors. So in this case the better insulation and sealing actually works against you. What can be done to fix a home with a Radon problem?

There are two basic ways to handle the problem. One of them is to install pipes that suck the Radon gas away from the spaces beneath the foundation and harmlessly expel it to the outside above the roof via an electric fan connected to exterior pipes. Another is to run the pipes inside the house or the garage so that the Radon is expelled outside above the roof. In this case, the electric fan is located in the attic, so the components of the system cannot be seen from the outside of the home. Both of these methods are referred to as Radon reduction or "mitigation" systems. According to Jamey Gelina, a radon specialist with The Air Quality Control Agency, "Radon gas can be reduced to safe levels in practically any home when the proper mitigation techniques are applied."

How do homeowners know whether or not their house is exposed to Radon? That's where Radon testing comes in. Radon occurs all over the United States, so testing should be pretty much mandatory. Testing is fairly simple and can be done by qualified testing services that install a detection device and then examine the results after a few days. This will reliably determine if the Radon levels in a home are high enough to require a Radon mitigation system. About one in every 15 homes in the US has excessive Radon levels, and Radon testing is mandatory in many states when you buy or sell a home. Even if it's not, given the potential health risks, it's foolish not to test one's home.

If testing reveals elevated Radon levels, a Radon mitigation system must be installed. Installation isn't difficult and it's a proven and effective technology, but it must be done right. There are many qualified mitigation system installers with certified and licensed technicians, so pick someone who's been in the business for a while to remove this potentially deadly thread from your home.
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