7 Surprising Reasons People Skip Radon Testing

1. Previous radon test was low. Radon levels fluctuate in a home due to changes in the soil, foundation settling and shifts, home renovations, and weather variations. People often test their home once, get a low reading, and assume they’re in the clear forever. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recommends retesting every two years, regardless of previous results. A safe level today does not guarantee a safe level tomorrow.

2. Live in a new home and believe it's protected. Newer and more energy-efficient homes limit the amount of unregulated air coming in or out of the house. They are designed to be tightly sealed to reduce heating and cooling losses. This brings down the electric bill and consumes less energy, but it traps more radon within the home. Radon-resistant new home construction is becoming more main-streamed, but it’s not required in many areas.

3. No basement in the home, so no perceived risk. The source of radon is the soil beneath the home, not just the basement. While radon can enter the home from basements, it also seeps into homes through cracks in the home foundation, crawl spaces, sump pumps, floor drains, and floor joints. When testing for radon, place a detector in the largest central living area on the lowest occupied level of one’s home versus just the basement.

4. Radon is invisible and odorless, so people don’t think about it. The “intangible nature of radon makes it harder to grasp its urgency,” according to Dr. Siavash Zare-Zadeh, a first-year psychiatry resident at the University of Calgary, in the article “Insights from New Doctors – The Future of Canadian Health Care”. Additionally, long term exposure to radon causes lung cancer, which further perpetuates the reduced sense of urgency for radon testing.

5. Lack of awareness that radon causes lung cancer. Smoking has been the singular cause of lung cancer in public opinion. This has created a stigma around lung cancer that the patient “deserves it” because they “chose to smoke”. However, radon is the leading cause of lung cancer in nonsmokers and the second leading cause of lung cancer after smoking. Plus, smokers who are also exposed to radon in their home and/or work environments are exponentially more at risk for lung cancer.

6. They think it’s not a problem in their area. Radon maps, like the EPA's Map of Radon Zones and Health Canada’s radon risk map, have many limitations. For example, radon maps only reflect tested homes and not all homes in an area. They can be outdated and, therefore, do not account for changing radon levels over time. Even if one lives in a “low-risk zone” their home can still have dangerously high radon levels.

7. It’s too expensive to test. Testing for radon is easy and economical. A DIY home radon test can cost less than many grocery items. If radon in the home is high, a radon mitigation system to reduce radon in the home usually costs about the same as other home repairs.

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Don’t fall for one of these reasons not to test for radon. Test your home with a simple home radon test kit or contact an NRPP or C-NRPP certified radon measurement professional in your area to perform the testing for you.