Radon And Real Estate - Know The Facts And Fear Not

Have doubts about the safety of a home free of Radon? If you take the time to learn the truth, you won't have anything to worry about. One home in America may test positive for radon while its neighbour tests negative. An existing mitigation system can be seen as a selling point in the real estate market, since it indicates that the home has been checked and repaired, and that the buyer is not taking a risk. Sellers, on the other hand, can feel good about making their radon toronto test findings and any mitigation efforts public. Knowledge is always preferable to ignorance. Just the good karma alone should have positive consequences, I think...

Radon is a radioactive gas produced naturally by the breakdown of uranium in soil and rock. There is no visible form of radon gas, and it has no discernible smell or flavour. Even though I was given the opportunity to purchase a home with radon, I couldn't help but worry if the statistics were accurate. However, my fear of buying a "cancer-causing radon house" was based on a lack of knowledge and a lack of imagination. The irony is that I was prepared to buy a home that made no mention of radon at all. But then the thought occurred to me: "What if this other house has radon too, and it's just never been tested?"

Looking back, I realise that the psychology of simply avoiding the subject altogether was initially really effective in our situation. Unfortunately, there are still plenty of people who, perhaps naively, don't see it as a crucial step in the home-buying or -selling process. Others go so far as to say that the entire concept of radon is a hoax. Having test results on hand is probably a good idea, though, out of courtesy and deference to the market.

Do you want to stay in the dark or find out the truth? Especially if a home had a high level requiring mitigation, I'd prefer to be informed. Even at a very high level, such as 20 pCi/L (pico Curies per Liter), my odds of getting lung cancer even then (without mitigation) would only be 36 out of 1000, and that's IF I were exposed over a lifetime. Exposure to 20 pCi/L for a lifetime, combined with cigarette smoking, is associated with a 2.6-fold increased risk of lung cancer. It stands to reason that non-smokers will be exposed to a significantly lower concentration, yet we all know that smoking carries health risks of its own.

Humans aren't naturally inclined to think about dangers and how we emotionally understand them using quantitative tools like charts and comparisons. Tomorrow, it might still happen to any one of us to get hit by a bus, right? There is no need for excessive anxiety, but knowledge is power, so prospective homebuyers should at least look at the numbers with a mitigation mechanism in place before making a final decision.

Systems designed to eliminate radon can bring the concentration down to the safe range of 2-4 pCi/L. The EPA cannot declare any radon level safe due to the nature of the gas itself, however they do state that levels between 2 and 4 pCi/L pose only a small threat to human health. The EPA estimates that your risk of developing lung cancer will drop to roughly 5 in a thousand if the radon level in your home is reduced to an acceptable level by mitigation. At that level of precision, it becomes clear that a lifetime of walking or living in polluted conditions, like a dozen or more other factors, may also have consequences. Let's just say, "Caution: being alive will kill you someday." Indeed, this should come as no surprise.

Very low radon levels shouldn't be viewed as alarms that cause homebuyers to flee the market, but neither should they be laughed off as something to be laughed at. People have been obliviously enduring radon's presence in the air and soil for a long time. It varies with hot and cold, wet and dry, and there are other things that might be just as dangerous to our health, if not more so. Don't freak out, but it's important to recognise the presence of chemistry, biology, and toxins in our everyday environments, including some of our cleaning products, moulds, pesticides, pets, and food options. Apocalypse awaits us if we spend too much time worrying about "interior pollution" and "what's in that dust?"

In order to ensure your knowledge and alleviate any unwarranted concern or misunderstanding, please take into account the following.

I was wondering if you had an estimated time frame for living there. While some homebuyers plan to stay put for the rest of their lives, others anticipate wanting a change in the next five years or so. Charts detailing the dangers of radon exposure over a lifetime (about 20 years) highlight the cumulative toll that the gas has on human health. In contrast to the EPA's "over a lifetime" figure, the risk for merely 5 to 10 years of exposure is likely to be much lower.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has calculated that the typical radon concentration in a home is about 1.3 pCi/L. This average should be taken into account if you purchase a home that has not been subjected to any sort of testing.

Although radon poses a threat, it may be mitigated. Never question a mitigation system, and if you need help finding an expert to inspect it, call the National Radon Hotline at 1-800-SOS-RADON. If they don't know, they should be able to provide you with contact information for the radon office in your state so you may locate qualified mitigation professionals.

Learn about radon and its effects on health and how different mitigation systems function by exploring the EPA's website (www.epa.gov).

If the house you want to buy is perfect in every way except for the presence of radon, don't be afraid to ask the seller to arrange for testing. Whether you include a request for mitigation as a contingency in your offer or try to negotiate a price reduction if the radon level is beyond the "allowed" level, you have options if the report reveals that the home has radon levels that above the threshold.

If a potential buyer brings up radon, you should be prepared to present them test findings. You can either prepare to drop the asking price of your property to reflect the fact that it needs mitigation work before it can be sold, or you can get the work done to make the home safer for potential buyers. (Not by a huge amount; perhaps $500 to $2,000). There's a high likelihood that a purchaser will value the information gained or measures done in advance of a transaction. Only the uninformed would avoid this, so having some leaflets on hand can assist.