Put Radon on your Radar
Tuesday, February 23rd, 2016
Have you ever checked your home for radon gas? If you’re like most Calgary homeowners, the answer is probably ‘no’ – but you should.
Radon is a colourless, odorless (i.e. undetectable by humans) gas that is produced by decaying uranium in rocks and soil, and seeps into homes through foundation cracks and vents. While there are pockets of radon across Canada, Alberta and southern Saskatchewan have the highest concentrations in the country. And it is serious business.
Radon is the second-most common cause of lung cancer in Canada, and can be linked to about 1900 deaths every year.
Fortunately, testing for radon in your home is easy and inexpensive. Testing kits (both short term, which measure for a couple of days, and long term, which detect for months) are available at local home improvement stores for about $30, and require only that you open the package and place the radon detector in an appropriate place (away from drafts and out of your furnace room). After the set period of time, you send the detector to a lab in the enclosed envelope, and a couple weeks later you get your report.
If no radon is detected in your home, you can rest easy. If it is, contact a radon mitigation company to assess and remediate the problem. There are several such companies in southern Alberta, who also do more involved testing than the kits homeowners can purchase themselves.
No one likes to think about unseen dangers that could be lurking in their homes, but if your home hasn’t been cleared for radon, it’s really something you should act on sooner rather than later. Feel free to give me a call to discuss this further.
On a side note, we’re only two weeks away from the Calgary Home + Garden Show, and they’ve given us a romantic coupon code to get 2-for-1 tickets! Simply use the code LOVE before February 22 to get your tickets.
