It’s winter. It’s cold and wet, even snowy outside. By choice you stay indoors, only venturing out when it’s essential. Naturally you tend to close windows and doors too but this reduces ventilation and could encourage the build up of harmful radon gas in your home or place of work.
Warm air inside a house or building draws this invisible and odourless gas in through flooring and any gaps or cracks in the building structure and harmful levels can build up, especially in basements.
In the UK between 1000 and 2000 deaths each year are estimated to be caused by exposure to radon. Results based on a European wide epidemiological study showed that the risk from radon is approximately 25 times higher for cigarette smokers than for non-smokers.
Fortunately testing is straight forward. Simply purchase a radon test kit. Generally radon gas detection kits contain two pods which are small and unobtrusive. They’re easy to use and come with full instructions on placement – normally in the most widely used rooms at home (the lounge and bedrooms) or most populated areas in the office.
After 10 days or 3 months remove the pods, complete the form included with the kit and return it with the detectors directly to an independent laboratory for analysis using the pre-addressed and postage paid envelope provided. Analysis and the reporting of individual results are entirely confidential. |
