11/24/2021
If there's something in the air, I'll identify it.
Although radon is a constant problem you should always be aware of, there are certain times of the year and conditions that can cause radon levels to fluctuate within your home. During the winter, the air in your home tends to be much warmer than the outside air, and this temperature difference creates a vacuum within your home. The warm air circulates around the house, starting from the ground level, up.
If your home has a cold air return, the furnace will draw air from the outside, but if there isn’t one, the furnace will draw air from the basement or crawl space, speeding up the rise of radon gasses through the ground.
Radon is a serious danger, created within the earth by the decomposition of radioactive metal uranium. As uranium breaks down underground, it releases a colorless, odorless, tasteless gas known as radon. Discovered in the late 1800s, the gas was quickly identified as a serious threat to respiratory health.
Being undetectable without professional-grade testing, the gas is inhaled through the nose and mouth, allowing the harmful particles to find a home within the lungs where they will slowly build up over time, taking years to develop into pronounced health issues. As the years go by, this raises the risk of lung cancer. The EPA and US Surgeon General have estimated that there are more than 20,000 radon-related lung cancer deaths in the United States alone each year, second only to smoking and to***co product use.
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