Why Everyone Should Test For Radon Using Radon Detector Store.com

Why do you need to test for radon? As many as 21,000 preventable lung cancers are caused by radon every year. You can not see, smell, or taste radon and you could live in house with dangerous radon gas levels and not be aware of it. The American Medical Association, Surgeon General, American Lung Association, Cansar, Lungivity, and EPA all recommend testing your home for radon. Do a radon home test. Testing is the only way to know if there is radon in the home. If you have high radon levels in your home you could get lung cancer. It takes years for symptoms to develop from radon poisoning and suddenly you find out you have lung cancer. Back

Why should schools test for radon? EPA estimates that more than seventy thousand schoolrooms in use today have high short-term radon gas levels. Testing in schools is recommended. Back

Why should every home be tested? The U.S. Surgeon General and the EPA recommend testing all homes below the third floor for radon. In every state there are homes with dangerously high radon levels . Because the radon concentration inside a home is due to factors relating to its structure and geographic location, each individual home must be tested to determine its radon level. Two adjacent houses may have very different radon levels. And any kind of home can have high levels - new or old, drafty or well-sealed, and basement or non-basement. The Minnesota Department of Health estimates that about one in three Minnesota homes have enough radon gas to pose a large radon risk to the occupants' health over many years of exposure. In some areas of the state, the percentage of homes that have high levels of radon is even larger.

The scientific consensus is that radon "represents a major environmental health hazard," says Bill Field, Ph.D., of the University of Iowa's College of Public Health. That consensus has been strengthened by several recent developments, Dr. Field says:

A pooled analysis of seven different North American residential radon studies, published in the journal Epidemiology in January, showed an 11% to 21% increase in lung cancer risk for those exposed to the gas. The risk grew with increasing radon exposure.
A similar study in Europe, published in the British Medical Journal in January, concluded that radon in European homes accounts for about 9% of lung cancer deaths.
The World Health Organization launched a radon program, after concluding that the gas causes between 6% and 15% of all cases of lung cancer in the world. "Radon poses an easily reducible health risk to populations all over the world, but has not up to now received widespread attention," says Mike Repacholi, coordinator of WHO's Radiation and Environmental Health Unit.
U.S. Surgeon General Richard H. Carmona issued a national health advisory in January, urging citizens to take action against radon.Back

The EPA and Surgeon General Recommend Testing for Radon

The EPA and Surgeon General estimated that as many as 21,000 lung cancer deaths are caused each year by radon. Next to smoking, radon is the second leading cause of lung cancers. American Lung Association as well as the EPA and the Surgeon General recommend testing all homes below the third floor for radon. Testing in schools is also recommended.

The EPA says that nearly 1 in 3 homes checked in seven states and on three Indian lands had screening levels over 4 pCi/L, the EPA's recommended action level for radon exposure. Back to Radon Info Page