Here in the United States, local radon testing services have become more important than ever before. Local radon testing and inspection can be conducted by various local radon testing companies in your area and is, in fact, something that is easier to do than you might realize. After all, there are a couple different ways in which local radon testing can play out. Typically, a short term radon test is likely to be used, as this test will be able to detect radon levels throughout your home for as many as 90 days, which is very nearly a full three months. However, long term radon tests, which are used past that 90 day mark, can also be implemented by various local radon testing companies in communities found all throughout the United States.
By why are these local radon testing services so important? For one thing, radon is found in more homes than you might realize. When it comes to the action level that has been set by the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), it has been found that up to one home out of every 15 homes throughout the United States have radon levels meeting or exceeding this action level. In addition to this, some parts of the country are likely to experience more profoundly concentrated levels of radon in homes in these communities. In addition to this, local radon testing services have also found that up to one third of all homes in such communities have high levels of radon, something that has been found throughout as many as seven states and on three Native American reservations.
But, again, why is this something that matters? What it comes down to is this: exposure to radon, especially over a period of time, is something that can prove hugely harmful to human health. Unfortunately, radon exposure has been directly linked to lung cancer in many people throughout the country. As a matter of fact, it has become such a serious problem that radon exposure accounts for more lung cancer cases than everything else except for smoking and tobacco usage. This effectively makes radon exposure alone the second leading cause of lung cancer throughout the country, leading to as many as 20,000 related deaths over the course of just one year. Unfortunately, lung cancer is all too often not detected until it is too late for treatment to really make an impact. In addition to this, radon gas is not able to be detected by smell, sight, or taste, making it particularly difficult to get a hold of if regular local radon testing services are not being utilized.
But utilizing these local radon testing services can save your life – and can save you from any other negative impact of radon exposure as well. Fortunately for many people, radon mitigation services are also commonplace and naturally follow local radon testing services if high levels of radon are found within your home. Testing for radon is the first step, and radon mitigation is more than possible. As a matter of fact, even various passive methods of radon mitigation can actually drastically reduce the overall levels of radon in your home, sometimes by as much as a full 15%. And as chances of lung cancer will rise by as much as a full 16% for each 100 bq/m increase of radon within a home or other such building, risks of lung cancer will fall accordingly, provided that the right radon mitigation methods are put into usage. Even just lowering radon levels to EPA action levels or below – not even eradicating the presence of radon fully – is something that would likely end up saving as many as 5,000 lives, cutting down radon related deaths by more than 2% – which might sound like a small amount but is really quite significant indeed.
At the end of the day, thinking about the presence of radon in your home can be a truly frightening thing, especially if you really understand the very real threat of radon exposure. However, local radon testing and mitigation services can help to reduce your risk of radon exposure in quite the significant way, to say the very least.
