radon in pa

[quiet life]

What are you saying, coalman? Don't worry about radon? I think it's a racket myself but what are your thoughts?

[jimazee]

This is a topic that comes up often, and yet is not clear in its conclusions, particularly as they apply to an individuals situation/decisions. There is LOTS of info and discussion on C-D and many other fora.

Here is the result of search for 'radon' subjects on C-D NEPA.

//www.city-data.com/forum/searc...rchid=33979242

If you do it on all C-D fora you will have enough info and opinions to put you to sleep quickly.

//www.city-data.com/forum/search.php?searchid=33979356

A full Google search will produce many millions of results!!!

Those who are concerned should read up some. The 'answers' and actions for every situation are not precise, requiring judgement based on individual situations. In the end, it comes down to $$$ vs. perceived health "risk".

[thecoalman]

Originally Posted by quiet life

What are you saying, coalman? Don't worry about radon? I think it's a racket myself but what are your thoughts?

I'm not saying not to worry about it but I think the issue is a little overhyped. You're given this arbitrary number, there is no safe amount of radiation but your exposed to radiation constantly.

As the previous poster mentioned research it and when you see a graph like this you'll know how they arrived at that number.



It's misleading because the Radon deaths are estimated, the others come from hard data. It appears they used data about miners who are going to be exposed to a lot of radon and the EPA states there is issues with that data itself. That aside the miner data would be the 5 people falling 20 feet and 2 die. From that they make an estimate for the whole population. The only thing I'm saying is be bit skeptical when you see information that says 21,000 people die each year from Radon because it's an estimate using dubious methods.... really no other way to produce such estimates when there is no hard data.

See chapter VII, pg.52 : http://www.epa.gov/radiation/docs/as...2-r-03-003.pdf

[quiet life]

Again, I think it's a racket Before I closed on the house, I had a radon test done. The highest reading I saw on the report was 18.2. That is high. According to EPA, not suppose to be above 4.0(off the top of my head). This is in a empty(basement) house with power off in the summer. Since I have lived here, the mitigation system the builder put in has been in operation. Wanted to get a reading after this but have been putting it off. Could I do this myself or should I hire a professional for their "expertise?"

[akpls]

Originally Posted by quiet life

What are you saying, coalman? Don't worry about radon? I think it's a racket myself but what are your thoughts?

Most of my entire family, immediate and extended, live or lived their entire lives in SE PA. None died from lung cancer. Maybe my family is just lucky....or it is over-hyped.

[quiet life]

Originally Posted by jimazee

This is a topic that comes up often, and yet is not clear in its conclusions, particularly as they apply to an individuals situation/decisions. There is LOTS of info and discussion on C-D and many other fora.

Here is the result of search for 'radon' subjects on C-D NEPA.

//www.city-data.com/forum/searc...rchid=33979242

If you do it on all C-D fora you will have enough info and opinions to put you to sleep quickly.

//www.city-data.com/forum/search.php?searchid=33979356

A full Google search will produce many millions of results!!!

Those who are concerned should read up some. The 'answers' and actions for every situation are not precise, requiring judgement based on individual situations. In the end, it comes down to $$$ vs. perceived health "risk".

Your links came up empty but I get the gist of what you are saying. I have been taking my chances with my initial avg. reading of 16.8. Well above the 4.0(according to EPA) reading I suppose to have in a house. I might get a reading again since it has been powered since I lived here. We'll see. Maybe I could be a study after a few years

[jimazee]

Originally Posted by quiet life

Your links came up empty but I get the gist of what you are saying. I have been taking my chances with my initial avg. reading of 16.8. Well above the 4.0(according to EPA) reading I suppose to have in a house. I might get a reading again since it has been powered since I lived here. We'll see. Maybe I could be a study after a few years

Sorry about the links, it appears they are not 'persistent' results. They seemed "live" when I posted them, and they don't work now for me either. To get them, I used the C-D 'advanced' search feature with 'radon' keyword, limited it to "Titles only", first for just the NEPA forum, then again for all open forums (title only). There are many many postings on the topic.

FWIW, my experience was in a newly built house.

We broke A LOT of rock excavating the basement, and after seeing radon pattern maps on the web (showing PA is among the leaders) it appeared obvious we had the potential for high radon. I first measured it using the cheap mail in charcoal kits. Both the basement and first floor produced high numbers. The readings were 20+ in the basement and also high (maybe 8?) on the first living level. After more reading, on the nature of radon, and its claimed(?) effects, I didn't bother measuring the second floor.

Since I planned to be there for a while,while using the basement for exercise and entertaining, and living mostly on the first floor, it was a no brainer to investigate remediation. I considered doing it myself. After researching, I decided to use a pro. His 'pro' measuring machine agreed it was high, close enough to my cheap devices results to convince me. Given some other personal considerations, I wasn't interested in being a guinea pig.

In less than a days work they installed the remediation system. It cost about $1000. The readings dropped to near 0 overnight. I used the third (it was a buy three special IIRC...) charcoal tester to verify the low reading.

Even if it is hooey, I feel much better .