Unfortunately, radon is found in more homes than many people realize, something that is, in and of itself, quite unfortunate as well. As a matter of fact, it is estimated that at least one fifteenth of all homes throughout the country have levels of radon within them that reach the point of action, as has been set out by the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), or have even exceeded it. In some parts of the country, this has become an even bigger issue. The risk for those who are living on Native American reservations is particularly high, where up to one third of all homes have been found to have incredibly high levels of radon in them.
But so what? What exactly are the threats that radon poses to us? Unfortunately, radon exposure over the course of time can take an immense toll, leading in particular to a vast number of lung cancer cases all throughout the United States. As a matter of fact, radon exposure is the second leading cause of lung cancer all throughout the country, as has been defined by the Surgeon General of the United States. Only smoking and the usage of tobacco products actually cause more cases, which is enough to give anyone pause if they had not yet truly considered the impact that radon can have. And these lung cancer cases, caused by radon in particular, have lead to an average of up to 20,000 deaths over the course of just one single year. If nothing is changed, this number is only likely to hold steady or even increase as time continues to pass on.
But how can this change? For one thing, radon in your home is not even something that many people have even given any thought to. Unfortunately, radon in your home is impossible to detect without the aid of a radon testing company, as radon in your home is odorless and impossible to see with the naked eye, even as it wreaks havoc on your body over the course of time. Fortunately, conducting regular radon testing on your home can help to ensure that radon in your home is not a threat.
And there are even a number of different tests that the average radon mitigation companies will use to detect radon in your home. The first is that of the short term radon detection test, which can detect radon in your home for as many as 90 days. If a longer radon detection test is needed, one can be supplied. This type of long term radon test will be able to detect radon in your home even past that aforementioned 90 day mark. Fortunately, as any radon mitigation and abatement service will know, knowing about radon in your home can end up saving your life, as it allows you to hire radon mitigation services for the best radon mitigation effectiveness possible. Living without radon in your home and the subsequent risk it poses to your health is certainly more than possible at the end of the day – however, you must first know about the radon in your home in the first place, something that likely will not be able to be done without residential radon testing of some sort. Therefore, just about every home out there should hire residential radon testing services at some point or another, even if only to be on the safe side. After all, in situations like these it is most certainly far better to be safe than to be sorry.
At the end of the day, the prospect of radon in your home can be a truly frightening one – especially when you know what radon can do to your body and the havoc that it can wreak there. Fortunately, there are steps that everyone can take not only to alert yourselves to the possibility of radon in your home, but to remove the radon in your home as well, therefore dropping your risk of health concerns in the long run.