Local radon mitigation and abatement services are hugely important no matter where you may be in the United States, but most people aren’t even aware of the danger that radon poses in their homes. In fact, radon – though a colorless and odorless gas – has the capability to lead to lifelong health problems – and even death. And the presence of high levels of radon in the residential home is a more common occurrence than the vast majority of people in the United States realize. But the truth of the matter is that as many as one out of every fifteen homes in the United States alone contains high levels of radon – levels that have been found to exceed the set EPA (environmental protection agency) action level. And if you happen to live on a Native American Reservation, your chances of radon exposure grow even higher, as one out of every three homes on such land has been found with these high levels of radon, often well past the EPA action level and causing harm to the inhabitants of that home the longer that they live there. Fortunately, local radon mitigation and abatement services can help to decrease the levels of radon in the typical single family home – but it is important to understand the danger of radon as it will make calling local radon mitigation and abatement services will seem pressing and an urgent matter (as it should).
Radon causes exposure to radiation, as any local radon mitigation and abatement services will tell you – and the detection of this radiation is in part what makes residential radon testing services possible. But if someone – or some people – live in a home that has a radon level at or above the action level declared by the Environmental Protection Agency, the levels of radiation that they are exposed to are, frankly, astonishing. In fact, it has been found that those living in such high concentrations of radon are exposed to as much as thirty five times the allowed levels of radiation (by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission) that said family would be able to be exposed to – even if they were next to a nuclear waste site.
This high level of radon exposure will likely have lasting health consequences if left untreated and ignored – another reason that local radon mitigation and abatement services are so crucial if you have high radon levels in your home. The biggest reason to seek out radon abatement services is simply this: to avoid contracting and developing lung cancer. Lung cancer has been found to occur after high levels of radon exposure and is one of the leading causes of death in the United States today. Data shows that radon is, in fact, the second leading cause of lung cancer – behind smoking alone – and often becomes fatal. Each and every year, radon exposure caused lung cancer will lead to as many as twenty thousand deaths in the United States alone and this risk increases the longer that you stay in a radon filled home.
Fortunately, testing for radon is possible through local radon mitigation and abatement services. These radon testing companies are likely to perform one of two radon tests: a short term one or a long term one (or perhaps even both). The short term method of radon testing involves a radon detector device that will measure the radon levels in a home or building for anywhere from two days to ninety days – though this will depend on the type of short term test that is used. A long term test will test the radon levels past ninety days – likely looking for any recurrence of radon in the home over time after the local radon mitigation and abatement services have been performed.
Radon is a scary thing, there’s no doubt about it, even though you can’t see or even detect it with the naked eye. And radon has serious consequences, leading to thousands of deaths every single year in the United States and elsewhere around the world. This is why radon testing is so hugely important.
