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Radon

Every year, 20,000 people die from a disease they get simply by breathing the air in their homes. Radon gas exposure is the leading cause of lung cancer for people who don’t smoke, and the second leading cause of lung cancer for people who do.

You can’t see it, smell it or taste it, but radon gas could be seeping into your home and slowly poisoning your lungs. It happens when decaying uranium in rocks and soil let off a natural gas, which enters a house through cracks under the ground. As you breathe in the odorless gas, it enters your lungs and lets off radiation, which causes cancer.

One of every 15 homes nationwide tests positive for radon gas at levels the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency deems hazardous to human health.

So what can you do?

First, you should test your home to find out whether radon gas is entering through the ground level. You can purchase inexpensive, short-term measuring kits that will tell you whether further analysis is necessary. If you do have a radon gas leak in your home, steps can be taken to ventilate the home by installing a 4-inch PVC pipe and attaching a fan that will suck the radon out.

Another important step you can take when buying a new home is to have it tested as part of the condition of purchasing the home. Often times realtors can write into the contract that the home must pass a radon test or the seller will pay to have any radon problems fixed before the sale goes through. No laws require that a home be tested for radon before purchase, so be sure to ask for this.

For more information about this issue, please click here or here.

To read more about this and other environmental health issues, go to: www.environmentalhealthnews.org, www.ourstolenfuture.org, or www.healthandenvironment.org