Granite Dells Area - Very High Radon Levels (Prescott: renters, houses)

[DellNec]

Originally Posted by BriansPerspective

So, you can see why I'm a little skeptical about radon.

I got some asbestos smoking pipes I can sell you. They work great and are 100% safe.

The point of my statement is that it sometimes takes years before the dangers of something are realized. Asbestos was toted as the best wonder product and it was featured at the Worlds' Fair. They put asbestos in almost every product they could. We all know how that turned out.



(source: “To grow, you have to get outside and go.” | Flamingo Dancer's Blog)

[BriansPerspective]

Originally Posted by DellNec

The point of my statement is that it sometimes takes years before the dangers of something are realized.

So, in the mean time, you feel obligated to scare the crap out of people when the current science is clearly in its infancy and in some cases actually shows a correlation between household levels of radon exposure and decreased levels of cancer!

By the way, when you tested your house for radon, how many times did you test it? According to the research in the Truth vs. Myth link, short term radon measurements are virtually meaningless:

The interday and intraday variability of airborne concentrations of airborne contaminants exhibits a geometric standard deviation of between 1.2 and 2.5 GSD.16b. This means that a single short term reading is virtually incapable of estimating the true annual radon concentration. The uncertainty for attempting to extrapolate the yearly radon concentration from a three to seven day sample, such as that probably used for the vast majority of “radon tests” is huge: about +/- 90% (at the 90% confidence level).

[motormaker]

Dell, Ahh, the topic is RADON.

[DellNec]

Originally Posted by BriansPerspective

So, in the mean time, you feel obligated to scare the crap out of people when the current science is clearly in its infancy and in some cases

First of all, it is NOT in its infancy. The point I was making is that 95% of the scientific community believes in its dangers. The remaining 5% are like those who disputed the asbestos threat.

Secondly, there are dozens of scientific studies that show radon to be a serious threat:
http://www.cheec.uiowa.edu/misc/radon.html

Thirdly, if you don't believe in its threat then that is your prerogative.

Lastly, nobody is "scaring the crap out of people". It's called a discussion and anyway since you don't believe in the radon threat then you have nothing to be scared about anyways.

Also, don't talk about "fear", as we all know "fear" has been used as the #1 motive to buy and sell homes by RE agents. It's either "buy now before the price increases and you can't afford it" or "sell now before the price drops and you lose even more money".

[wretched wrench]

Nothing on the web scares the crap out of me. My heart goes out to anyone who is that scared that easily.

But, all the opinions and sites posted have helped me learn a lot more.

Must be a good thing.

If I feel like disagreeing, I disagree with the information or post differing information, rather than make accusations at the poster.

[DellNec]

Originally Posted by wretched wrench

Nothing on the web scares the crap out of me. My heart goes out to anyone who is that scared that easily.

But, all the opinions and sites posted have helped me learn a lot more.

Must be a good thing.

If I feel like disagreeing, I disagree with the information or post differing information, rather than make accusations at the poster.

Well said. Knowledge is power.

At a minimum it can make for a good ice breaker. I had dinner with some acquaintances the other day and I mentioned that one of the largest fault lines in AZ was located in Chino Valley and geologists state it can produce a 7.0+ quake. None of them ever even heard of that. It made for a good conversation piece.


In regards to radon, what were your radon levels at your home?

[wretched wrench]

Originally Posted by DellNec

In regards to radon, what were your radon levels at your home?

Haven't had any testing yet. Gonna do it someday, though. As I mentioned earlier, I had extra vents with adjustable louvers put in the stub walls to catch the prevailing winds just in case.

The floor is well- insulated, so cold air flowing through the crawl space is not a giant issue in winter. On the outside chance that there is a radon issue that cannot be addressed by air flow, I may staple a membrane to the underside.

Which begs the question, does anyone know if polyethylene is permeable to radon. Perhaps a foil-backed radiant barrier film would be better. Kinda like a tin foil hat, but in reverse.

But, as a Clintonian smoker, there shouldn't be too much risk.

With regard to your asbestos pipe ad, they are OK once you build up a cake.

[DellNec]

Originally Posted by wretched wrench

Haven't had any testing yet. Gonna do it someday, though. As I mentioned earlier, I had extra vents with adjustable louvers put in the stub walls to catch the prevailing winds just in case.

They sell some DIY kits that are reliable and not as costly as calling someone out there. I believe they area you are in should be OK, unless you are in Granite Dells or Groom Creek. Usually areas high in granite content tend to have high uranium content underneath. Not always but usually. Area's like Seligman and Ash Fork were hit and miss with radon.

Originally Posted by wretched wrench

Which begs the question, does anyone know if polyethylene is permeable to radon. Perhaps a foil-backed radiant barrier film would be better. Kinda like a tin foil hat, but in reverse.

I would probably call up one of those radon companies. I would use the ones out east because they are more experienced, especially the Appalachian areas, as they deal with that stuff a lot.

[BriansPerspective]

Originally Posted by DellNec

Secondly, there are dozens of scientific studies that show radon to be a serious threat:
THE IOWA RADON LUNG CANCER STUDY

Nice study. It's a bear to get through. I might have to read it again. I have two concerns with the study though.

1. The data is not visually presented. I would love to see a graph of never-smokers with cancer vs. radon exposure and never-smokers without cancer vs. radon exposure. A graph like that would give a great visual perspective of the correlation between radon and cancer for non-smokers. The resultant calcuation of the two samples is presented (in Table 7) as an excess risk of pluss 22% or plus 88% depending on the statistic, but the actual data is not presented.

2. I question the accuracy of the correlation since level of education (which couldn't possibly have anything to do with radon cancer IMHO) shows a correlation to radon causing cancer. According to Table 7, you have a 34% and 65% greater risk of getting cancer through radon if you have more than 12 years of education. That just does not make sense to me.

[kdog]

Originally Posted by BriansPerspective

Nice study. It's a bear to get through. I might have to read it again. I have two concerns with the study though.

1. The data is not visually presented. I would love to see a graph of never-smokers with cancer vs. radon exposure and never-smokers without cancer vs. radon exposure. A graph like that would give a great visual perspective of the correlation between radon and cancer for non-smokers. The resultant calcuation of the two samples is presented (in Table 7) as an excess risk of pluss 22% or plus 88% depending on the statistic, but the actual data is not presented.

2. I question the accuracy of the correlation since level of education (which couldn't possibly have anything to do with radon cancer IMHO) shows a correlation to radon causing cancer. According to Table 7, you have a 34% and 65% greater risk of getting cancer through radon if you have more than 12 years of education. That just does not make sense to me.

You're not the only person who has a problem with the correlations claimed in the study. RE: Iowa Radon Lung Cancer Study