Radon health (blood, smoking, cancer, cure)

[Arya Stark]

Didn't know where to put this.

I am so confused. When I moved into my townhome I had a test come back at 3.8. Just under the "you must do something" line. Then I got another test and it came back at 2.3. Just hardly in the gray area. I was convinced by this point that I needed to do nothing.

But I tested my kitchen (presumably would be lest than my basement) and it was 4.6. I do have granite countertops.

I am going to test again...

I have been told in the past that you should take the average and the average is 3.5 which is gray area. But I also consider that these things aren't the most accurate.

It is so irritating to just have it be so close to the line... that it is hard to make a decision.

[SanyBelle]

Many year ago I was selling a townhouse in suburban Philadelphia. I was required to do a radon test. The first result came back high they said the reason was because I put the testing thing too close to a ceramic lamp I had. Could you be getting a high reading due to something like this?

[guidoLaMoto]

This is one of my favorite topics to illustrate the power of pseudoscience/lobbyists/ignorant politicians.

Radon is a weakly radioactive gas that gives off alpha rdiation. Alpha radiation can be stopped by a sheet of paper....and if you notice, there are no radon mines anywhere because it exists ony temporarily in the air, created by the rdiocative decay of uranium...Uranium decays in a series of steps that give off not only apha particles, but also beta particles (can be stopped by an inch of wood) and gamma rays, which take 3 ft of concrerte to stop....so..

If you got Radon, you got Uranium and are subject to gamma radiation..The lobbyists can fool the politicians into enacting laws about ventilatijg your basement, but would have a hard time convincing them that they should legislate that all the dirt for 10 yds around and under your house should be excavated and replaced.

You point out an important point-- granite (and many other materials) contain a measurable amount of uranium, etc. Cancer levesl don't seem to be significantly higher in people living in areas of "high radon" levels- slight difference, but not clinically sgnificant.

Boondoggle.

[Arya Stark]

Originally Posted by SanyBelle

Many year ago I was selling a townhouse in suburban Philadelphia. I was required to do a radon test. The first result came back high they said the reason was because I put the testing thing too close to a ceramic lamp I had. Could you be getting a high reading due to something like this?

Possibly. I am retesting. They said not to put it too close to a wall, I guess whatever radon is in the house can build up on the wall... so I will try putting it in the middle of the area.

I have tried to figure out if placing the test directly on the granite -- which I did -- made it come back higher than it really should have.

It was shocking to me to get a result higher on my first floor than in my basement.

[Texas Ag 93]

Originally Posted by Arya Stark

Didn't know where to put this.

The "House" forum is probably the best place for this. I bet if you move it there, you'll get a lot of good responses.

Originally Posted by guidoLaMoto

This is one of my favorite topics to illustrate the power of pseudoscience/lobbyists/ignorant politicians.

I think this is a pretty spot on statement. We lived in Colorado for 3 years and bought a property in the mountains that had "high" radon readings. Can't remember the level, but it was maybe around 5, so we had to install a system to read and monitor the levels. I think the cost was around $2-3K. Can't remember.

Anyway, the more we read and learned, the more we were inclined to believe a lot of the fear about radon is largely fear mongering, but you have to play the game and show that you are addressing these issues to appease lenders, potential buyers etc.

[Jessie Mitchell]

Originally Posted by guidoLaMoto

This is one of my favorite topics to illustrate the power of pseudoscience/lobbyists/ignorant politicians.

I moved to a high radon area of the country. I have not our house tested for a couple reasons. First is we don't use the basement for anything except that's where the water heater and furnace are, plus a little storage. Second, we don't have children living in the home, we're already old enough there isn't a lot of time for cancer to develop anyway, and we don't plan to live here for many years before moving again.

But I did read a lot of the scary radon warnings and saw people with varying levels of anxiety about it, so then I went and looked at the lung cancer rates for this area over time. Interestingly, they are actually lower than the national average, even below the rates of the low radon area we moved away from before coming here. I suspect that has to do with the percentage of people who smoke cigarettes in both places.

[Arya Stark]

Originally Posted by Jessie Mitchell

But I did read a lot of the scary radon warnings and saw people with varying levels of anxiety about it, so then I went and looked at the lung cancer rates for this area over time. Interestingly, they are actually lower than the national average, even below the rates of the low radon area we moved away from before coming here. I suspect that has to do with the percentage of people who smoke cigarettes in both places.

Yes the facts are the results I got place me at the risk of 7 people out of 1000 could get lung cancer in a life time of that radon exposure. If you smoke that goes up to 36.

However, I have a precursor condition to a blood cancer and there is science that shows a higher rate of this condition and blood cancer in people exposed to radon. And this condition showed up out of no place since I have been living at this address.

But with regard to the basement I was surprised to see my radon level higher in my kitchen than my basement. I am trying to determine if it is the granite countertops or the way I placed the test.

[SunnySam16]

I did a diy test. Laundry room. NO circulating air vents of any type. Left door CLOSED during the 52 hours of testing. Came back 5.6

Called a licensed test/mitigate company: 5.5

Then watched a short info on YT about this woman and did a google search - Nov 2022: LEHI, Utah — A Utah woman is warning others about the danger of radon after she received a stage 4 cancer diagnosis for non-smoking lung cancer.

“The oncologist explained that it had metastasized,” Lehi resident Kerri Robbins said. “So it had gone from my lungs to my brain.”

Her levels in her home were found at 31 pico

[Thulsa]

The issue about granite countertops isn't really about granite in general. Granite on the average is just another rock and pretty much every rock on earth emits some radioactivity.

Some uncommon samples of granite are more than 1000 times more radioactive than others, so some particular samples may be a problem, but my reading is that those are rare.
Most references talk about the average samples of granite which are safe. You should not care what the average is. You only care about what the countertop you have does. So the question is how do you know if your countertop has a problem, what to do about it.
Extensive and directed testing can tell you and costs money.
The usual cure if you have a problem is ventilation. My belief is that fresh air coming through the house is better for you in many ways. So you might just consider cracking a couple of windows open at your kitchen, redoing the test, and go from there.

[guidoLaMoto]

...except you can't ventilate away gamma rays.

OTOH- each of us has about 500x more radiation coming from radiactive isotopes of Potassium in our bodies than the radiation emmitted from a cubic meter of granite. (Look it up.)

Keep things in perspective....Ignore thse signs that say "Danger !! One Million Ohms!!" (If it's a million, it must be bad..right?)