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| Precise and Affordable Radon Testing Company Serving the Greater Madison, Wisconsin areas including Sun Prairie and Dodgeville. Residential or Commercial Radon Mitigation Available. |
"Radon" sounds like a secret supervillain, and you could say that's essentially what it is. An invisible, odorless gas, radon concentrates in homes and buildings, exposing those who breathe it in to the second-top cause of lung cancer in the U.S. The good news is radon testing is simple; high-radon homes can be mitigated or fixed – and free or reduced-cost testing is offered in many areas.
Invisible Carcinogen
"Radon is actually the leading environmental cause of cancer mortality in the United States," says Bill Field, a professor of occupational and environmental health at the University of Iowa. "About 21,000 people die each year from it. People really underestimate its importance."
Lung cancer is the only type of cancer with a proven association to protracted exposure to radon. "We have some suspicions it may be related to other types of cancers, but there are no studies that have conclusively shown that," Field says.
As a cause of lung cancer in the U.S., radon is surpassed only by smoking. And people who smoke are even more vulnerable when exposed to radon. "If you're a smoker and you live in a house with radon, your risk is geometrically higher than just being a smoker without it," says Janice Nolen, assistant vice president for national policy at the American Lung Association. "The two together combine to worsen your risk of developing lung cancer."
A Little Too AirtightToday's energy-efficient, airtight homes actually pull radon inside and trap it there, says Angel Price, associate director of Cancer Survivors Against Radon. "Your houses suck" is a phrase used in radon-training courses, she says, to illustrate how homes work as vacuums to draw radon in. CanSAR was co-founded by Elizabeth Hoffman, who was diagnosed with radon-induced lung cancer in 2003 and died a decade later. Hoffman became an anti-radon advocate, testifying several times in front of Congress about the dangers of radon and the need for national awareness and action.
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| Radon Gas can enter your home if many different places. Are you informed about Radon gas levels in the Madison, WI area? Radon Solutions of WI can help. |
Each Home Is Different
The Environmental Protection Agency website includes a map of EPA radon zones, which color-codes counties into zones 1, 2 and 3. The areas in zone 1 have the highest predicted indoor radon screening levels. But the EPA notes that homes with elevated radon levels can be found in all three zones. "The reality is, we do know that high levels can be anywhere," Nolen says. "If you look at that map and go, 'Hmm, I don't live in one the highest-risk zones; I'm not going to worry about it,' you're missing the point. It can be a problem in any home in any neighborhood." Awareness of radon's risk for lung cancer started by looking at miners who had been exposed to uranium, Nolen says. However, it wasn't known that radon was also in homes until the mid-1980s, she says. "The more we learned, the more we know that it is a risk in many, many homes," Nolen says. "It can be in areas where you don't think it's a problem. Your neighbors may have tested and not had a problem. But you test because your situation may be very different, depending on your house." Field agrees: "I've looked at radon readings from every state," he says. "There are homes that have very high radon concentrations, even though the state as a whole may not have a high concentration."
