If you have a dilemma whether or not to test your home or an office for radon, we hope that the text below will help you to make a responsible decision and choose to test your home for radon.
Radon is a unique element in nature, which was discovered in 1900. It is difficult for this element to get into chemical connections with other elements, and as it is the heaviest gas, it easily penetrates and accumulates indoors. Above all, it is a radioactive gas and therefore can have a detrimental effect on human health.
Radon is located in the soil and is relatively easily reachable to the surface of the earth, and then penetrates into residential buildings. Also, it is found in construction material, and thus it enters into closed residential or workplaces. Its half-life is 3.8 days, which means that after that time about half the amount is left, and after a while, a quarter of the quantity remains and so on until it disappears.
How the radon enters homes and apartments?
Radon is chemically inert and can move along the pores and crevices of the earth. While moving through the pores and cracks, it can finally reach the surface, that is, the atmospheric air. If a housing object is found on that path, radon will easily penetrate into its interior. The main roads to which the radon penetrates the building are: cracks in the floors and walls, construction joints and cavities in the walls.
Also, to a certain extent, the source of radon in indoor spaces may be building materials, which also contain certain concentrations of uranium and its offspring that are the source of radon. The lower the floor, the higher radon concentrations are, and the basements are particularly vulnerable. The greatest danger is not in normal amounts of radon that exists in nature, but in its large accumulation in the premises where people live. Accumulation of radon in the house was discovered accidentally, not so long ago in 1985. It was then observed, by very sensitive instruments for detecting elevated radiation at the entrance and exit of a nuclear power plant, that workers came to work radioactive.
Radon represents a great risk to your health so it is mandatory that you hire a home inspector to do radon testing.