Radon

Radon is now a common topic among home buyers and sellers. However, the Environmental Protection Agency has been developing Radon awareness for decades. Radon has been found to be the second leading cause of cancer in humans.

Radium is a naturally occurring radioactive element which creates a gas as it decays. That gas is Radon. As the Radium releases gas, the gas moves up through the cracks in the earth as quickly as it can and finally exists through soil. There are a variety of factors that enable the gas to move faster. Soil density and warmer temperature are the most relevant to a home owner.

When a house is built, the foundation, crawlspace, or basement sits on the soil. The house itself creates a dynamic air environment in which heat rises and cooler air is pulled in through cracks in concrete, wood, windows, or floors. If you’ve ever felt a draft in a house, it is the movement of cooler air into the house as the warmer air leaves. The house works as a vacuum in this sense. In a house that is experiencing higher than average radon activity in the soil beneath it, the house acts as a filter of that vacuum, leaving radon trapped inside and accumulating at a higher than acceptable rate. This is when Radon becomes a health hazard.

What we are concerned with is what the cooler air brings with it when it comes into the house. Radon gas is around us all the time in small amounts, but it moves and decays very quickly. As it decays it breaks into smaller pieces known as Radon Decay Products. These particles are airborne and eventually land on something where they will soon lose any radioactivity. The danger to us is that we breathe in these particles, and those particles may damage our lungs and cause cancer.

In a perfect world, we would completely seal our houses to mitigate issues with Radon, but sealing a house completely creates other obstacles in other areas. Current solutions generally involve sealing the ground beneath a house, or all the nooks, cracks, and crannies between the foundation and the house, and then installing an intentional passage for the Radon to move up, out, and away from the house. When the Radon reaches open air, the particles are diluted with other gases.