Radon and the Academy Awards
Radon and the Academy Awards
Are you leaning toward True Grit or The King's Speech for the best picture? Or you're a big fan of The Fighter Regardless of your favorite 2010 movie and your level of interest in the Academy Awards, you know that this Hollywood fanfare will be hard to escape over the next few weeks.
So, what does radon have to do with the movies? I'm glad you asked. In the movie script I'm talking about, radon is a mysterious villain threatening the health and well-being of an unsuspecting family. That's right: The bad guy in this story is a hidden killer, a biohazard that you can't see, smell, or hear. Unknowingly, family members are sharing their home with an invisible gas that is slowly and secretly degrading their bodies, cell by cell.
OK, this sounds like the script for a 3rd-rate horror movie. But it's a true story that can apply to communities across the country, wherever there's a family that hasn't yet tested their house for radon. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that over 21,000 people die every year in the U.S. from exposure to radon, the leading cause of lung cancer amongst non-smokers. And true to the horror movie genre, radon exposure can be surprisingly random. Your neighbor's house may test out at very low levels, while your house shows much higher and more hazardous concentrations. Radon gas comes from the soil and from rocks and is found all over the world.
Fortunately, this movie can have a happy ending. It's easy to test your house for radon or call in a radon mitigation specialist who can test it for you. Either way, test results are usually very accurate provided that basic testing instructions are followed. If testing reveals an exposure level above 4 picocuries per liter, (4pCi/L), the EPA recommends installing a radon abatement system; however, some families are adhering to the lower exposure threshold of 2.7pCi/L recommended by the World Health Organization.
Sticking with our successful conclusion theme, it's important to note that this killer can be forever banished from the house using proven, well-established abatement techniques. Regardless of the "action threshold" you choose, protecting family members and friends from harmful radon exposure can be done affordably and effectively by an experienced radon specialist. The contractor will design and install an abatement system that sucks radon-laden air from beneath your home's foundation and exhausts it into the atmosphere where it can't do any harm.
A radon reduction system just has a single moving part, the exhaust fan, so it works continuously and reliably. If you haven't had your home tested for radon, do it now so that the movie you're starring in can have a happy ending. Encourage your friends to do the same.
