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Just found out the home I've been living in has high levels of radon. I've been renting a basement room for 2.5 years. In the process of moving out. I have an appointment with my GP doctor in a week and have spoken to a nurse and another emergency doctor to see if there are any tests and if I should be concerned? They have all been unhelpful so far, pushing me off to the next person.
I've noticed I sneeze a lot in the house, have occasional asthma (always had asthma) and nose bleeds (but I live at high elevation and have always had that problem.) Only weird thing is a swallowing issue I've had on and off for the past year. The company putting in the mitigation system say our levels are the equivalent of smoking two packs of cigarettes/day! This is upsetting because I'm a health nut!
Any advice? Insight? Should I seek out a toxicologist? What kind of specialist might handle this situation? Thank you for your thoughts.
What was the actual radon level (the number)? From what I have read, any thing over 4 pci/L should be mitigated. The main risk is developing lung cancer from breathing radioactive gas over a period of time, often years. Do others in your area have radon systems? I ask because those pushing the systems may use scare tactics to sell. I just wondered if the area is known to have radon. I put in a mitigation system in our house as our level was more than double the acceptable level. If a house has high radon with smokers living there, it really increases the risk for lung cancer. No smokers here and if you are a non smoker, of course, that really brings the risk down. As far as other health issues, I am not aware of any, but there may be.
What was the actual radon level (the number)? From what I have read, any thing over 4 pci/L should be mitigated. The main risk is developing lung cancer from breathing radioactive gas over a period of time, often years. Do others in your area have radon systems? I ask because those pushing the systems may use scare tactics to sell. I just wondered if the area is known to have radon. I put in a mitigation system in our house as our level was more than double the acceptable level. If a house has high radon with smokers living there, it really increases the risk for lung cancer. No smokers here and if you are a non smoker, of course, that really brings the risk down. As far as other health issues, I am not aware of any, but there may be.
Agree that there are definitely some scare tactics out there, and those are perpetuated by sellers of these systems and sometimes even realtors. Radon seems to be one of those things you absolutely must fix, even if the levels are not that bad.
Radon is a common problem that occurs in basements in areas that have/had levels of naturally occurring uranium. Often, when a property with a basement is "closed up" or sees limited use, the radon levels will skyrocket, only to come down once the radon mitigation system is put it, so to that end, I suppose they are effective. We had to do this to a property we own in the mountains in Colorado. Previous owners used it very little and the radon levels were high. When my husband started doing some research about the link between radon and lung cancer, he found that most of the science came from limited studies involving a small sample size, as well as some other elements that made it a less than ideal scientific study. I can't remember the specifics, though.
What was the actual radon level (the number)? From what I have read, any thing over 4 pci/L should be mitigated. The main risk is developing lung cancer from breathing radioactive gas over a period of time, often years. Do others in your area have radon systems? I ask because those pushing the systems may use scare tactics to sell. I just wondered if the area is known to have radon. I put in a mitigation system in our house as our level was more than double the acceptable level. If a house has high radon with smokers living there, it really increases the risk for lung cancer. No smokers here and if you are a non smoker, of course, that really brings the risk down. As far as other health issues, I am not aware of any, but there may be.
The level is 4.9 pci. I learned this isn't high compared to other parts of Denver. A mitigation system has been installed. Thank you for your responses. I'm feeling better than I did earlier in the week!
Last edited by MyScreenName; 05-24-2015 at 09:49 AM..
That's not terribly bad. No need to run to doctors and have them tell you nothing as they probably don't know that much anyways. I will tell you that homes in the midwest often have far higher values especially in states like Iowa. Move out and take it as lesson learned.. you modestly increased your cancer risk but really not substantially.
For some reason city-data doesn't let you upload the same image to more than one thread otherwise I'd post a nice graphic for you. Needless to say, don't worry about it.
It is quite possible that you could reduce that low of a level to an acceptable level by just venting the basement through a window. The radon levels will vary throughout the year. When the ground is frozen, our radon level increases. When it is raining, our radon level increases. With our system in place, it runs to .5 to 1.7. Without the system, it climbed to 10 and sometimes higher.
People should assume they have radon in their basements if there is no mitigation. Consider mitigation a selling point of a home if you find it since it means low radon levels. Otherwise radon levels are typically not tested for which I find interesting consider how many people finish and live in levels below grade particularly in houses that are split foyers.
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