Radon Levels in Maine?

[retiredtinbender]

Originally Posted by OutDoorNut

With respect to basements, I wonder if a house built over a basement creates a kind of chimney effect, in which radon from the ground surrounding the house is drawn into the basement along with radon from the ground directly beneath the house thereby further concentrating the amount of radon.

I don't think so. From what I understood it travels through the cracks/paths in the rock and soil as straight as it can. If the geology forces it under the foundation then it would go up through the house. We now have to build super tight houses and have ventilation systems to take care of the breathing houses used to do.

No matter how mother nature tries to lessen the human population , we can figure out a way to circumvent her. Pretty soon she'll give the earth a humongous shrug and off we'll go.

[Zarathu]

Does anybody actually know of anybody who died of a confirmed radon poisoning? Fixing radon is about as significant as fixing radiation from space. Pretty soon we'll be paying big money for people to come to our house and put on a special spray to protect us from that. The government will have all kinds of data to show us just like Colin Powell proved to everyone that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq that we just had to find and destroy.

I don't doubt that labs may be able to show radon, I'm just not so sure that its any more impactive than radiation from Space. I've also no doubt that we are having climae change. Heck climate is constantly changing, I just can't see any serious proof beyond bad mathematical modeling that humans did it.

It doesn't have to be a conspiracy. All you ahve to do is publicize bad data and have a few scientists attest to it and pretty soon it has a life of its own. The rules of mass hysteria in crowds does it all by itself. With the climate of fear everywhere, a few tv shows and a little internet coverage and pretty soon people actually believe that living in a house that leaks air like sieve is teh same as working in a uranium mine 10 hours a day for 30 years. Heck, nearly anything that you take in, given in enough quantities will produce cancer.

IMO, the whole thing is a joke. a bad expensive joke. Just like carbon credits. You know, you can't block it out, because it comes right up through your concrete slab. Now tell me how something that can go right thorough your 6 inch concrete slab now gets bottled up in your house by a little bit of siding and some wood. If you think about this stuff, it begins to sound kind of screwy.

[AustinB]

Originally Posted by Zarathu

Does anybody actually know of anybody who died of a confirmed radon poisoning? Fixing radon is about as significant as fixing radiation from space. Pretty soon we'll be paying big money for people to come to our house and put on a special spray to protect us from that. The government will have all kinds of data to show us just like Colin Powell proved to everyone that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq that we just had to find and destroy.

I don't doubt that labs may be able to show radon, I'm just not so sure that its any more impactive than radiation from Space. I've also no doubt that we are having climae change. Heck climate is constantly changing, I just can't see any serious proof beyond bad mathematical modeling that humans did it.

It doesn't have to be a conspiracy. All you ahve to do is publicize bad data and have a few scientists attest to it and pretty soon it has a life of its own. The rules of mass hysteria in crowds does it all by itself. With the climate of fear everywhere, a few tv shows and a little internet coverage and pretty soon people actually believe that living in a house that leaks air like sieve is teh same as working in a uranium mine 10 hours a day for 30 years. Heck, nearly anything that you take in, given in enough quantities will produce cancer.

IMO, the whole thing is a joke. a bad expensive joke. Just like carbon credits. You know, you can't block it out, because it comes right up through your concrete slab. Now tell me how something that can go right thorough your 6 inch concrete slab now gets bottled up in your house by a little bit of siding and some wood. If you think about this stuff, it begins to sound kind of screwy.

I've found ti foil will take care of all sorts of radiis.

[mollysmiles]

Well, that depends.... if it caused the lung cancer that killed you is it the killer or the lung cancer?

Radon poisoning is the second leading cause of lung cancer in the US. But, hey, other than that little thing, radon isn't a problem at all.

oh, guess I better add a link backing that up... there were many, many to choose from....

http://planetgreen.discovery.com/tv/...on-cancer.html


and this one: http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Risk/radon

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by Zymer

... On the other hand, ventilation is simple, cost effective, and undeniably works to reduce the build-up of Radon. ...

Ventilation also reduces moisture build-up in modern housing.

[League54]

Originally Posted by Zymer

Mmmmmmm, cyanide, that will kill a lot of things.

Sorry bud, that ain't going to help.


On the other hand, ventilation is simple, cost effective, and undeniably works to reduce the build-up of Radon.

On the contrary...maybe you should do some more research. Myself my family and now my friends have been eating high concentrations of B17 for years...no cancer and no cyanide toxicity.

I'm going to revisit this post in a few years (cancer free) and see how everyone else is doing.

[Spanky25]

WOW, Look what I started! Some interesting replies to my orig. post.

[mollysmiles]

I'll let someone else take on the radon poisoning while increasing their Vitamin D to test the "beat cancer this way" theory. I've beaten cancer once, I'm not interested in taking on that battle voluntarily again.

[OldNavy1]

Originally Posted by OutDoorNut

The high infant mortality rates in the old days brought the statistic for average life expectancy way down.

But if you research statistics for how long the people who managed to reach adulthood lived, you'd find that people lived a lot longer in the old days than most people realize.

I suspect the reason radon was not as dangerous in the old days is that for most of human history people lived in drafty well ventalated dwellings (and in addition to being ventalated, likely the very first houses were huts and tents without basements; and in early America well into the nineteenth century, people purposely built houses that allowed air to circulate because they imagined that was healthier. They were right about that, and it also is healthier for the house, too).

The reason radon is becoming more of a danger these days is likely because over the last fifty to one hundred years, houses are increasingly built or modified to be as airtight and insulated as possible, thereby trapping the radon inside with the people.

Your third and fourth paragraphs are right on target. To the posters who wonder why a substance that has been with us for millenia should be viewed as potentially dangerous, radon per se is not. We are meant to co-exist with radon symbiotically. However, we are living in an unnatural situation when we seal our houses year round. Not only do we get a build-up of radon, but we build up many other harmful gases as well. Many of the materials in our home continually outgas, and if they are not allowed to exhaust freely, will build up to harmful concentrations.

I recently bought a house. It had been on the market for a few months, vacant. A two-day basement radon test done pre-purchase gave a reading of 5.9 pCi/l, above the EPA limit of 4.0. After purchase, but before I moved in, I bought a continuous digital radon meter, and measured 5.0 in the basement, and 3.8 in an inner main floor den (no windows). After I moved in, basement tests for over a week (no windows open) gave a reading of 1.0, and the inner den gave a three week reading of 0.5.

At least in my case, the reading was due to stagnant air for a few months, and that may be true for many homes that have been vacated before testing. In addition, as I have posted elsewhere on the radon sites, the issue of whether radon is dangerous below about 6-8 pCi/l is unsettled science. If you are a non-smoker and believe in the dangers promulgated by the EPA, your chances of getting lung cancer after decades of exposure to radon at the EPA limit are extremely small. If you are a smoker, they increase substantially, but then you should be worrying about the smoking, not the radon.

However, if your primary concern in a house is minimizing potential radon damage, then the solution is clear. Move to a location with mild year round climate, like San Diego, and leave a number of your windows open at all times. That's the way humans were meant to live, and that will be the healthiest environment.