Radon is a colorless, odorless, radioactive gas that can cause lung cancer in people who are exposed to it over time. According to the EPA, around 21,000 people die from the consequences of radon exposure every year. Radon occurs natural and can be found in soil. When it migrates from the soil to the home, it can be an unseen problem. Radon, however, doesn’t just enter through cracks in the basement and seepage form the soil, it can also come in through the water pipes. Doing the dishes or laundry or showering can stir up the water and release the radon gas into the home. About five percent of all radon deaths can be attributed to radon found in water.
The Five Senses
Because your five senses are incapable of detecting radon in the air, water, or soil, there is no reasonable way for you to be able to now on your own whether or not your home is full of radon. It is colorless, so you can’t see it. It is odorless, so you can’t smell it. There’s no tell-tale hiss when its released, and your skin won’t feel it in the air. You won’t taste it in the water. Without a reliable way of detecting radon, you can’t know if you need to take steps to mitigate its presence or if it would be a waste of money and time to do so.
Radon Mitigation Services
Some places that offer radon mitigation may also offer testing services for your water. While these places may be reliable and honest, they may also be doctoring results or interpreting them in such a way to make you believe your home needs radon mitigation. If they depend on mitigation for their livelihoods, they may not even realize they are misinterpreting the results they get. Any service that offers to mitigate the radon inside the home through attachments to the sink should be immediately dismissed; radon mitigation equipment needs to be attached to the water system at the point of entry into the home to be effective.
DIY Solutions
You may be able to find a kit online that says it can detect radon in your home and in your water. These kits may be an okay first step, but many are unreliable for many different reasons. There are currently no reliable radon water testing kits out there for people who would like to do it themselves. Save yourself the time and money that one of these kits will cost and hire a professional to get the job done right the first time.
A Reliable Source
The best way to get a test done is to contact a state certified water testing laboratory that can give you real results without you having to interpret the values or threat level. Professional water testing laboratories make their profits by providing reliable, accurate results for the water they test. Because they do not do any remediation or mitigation, you don’t have to worry about getting the wrong results or doctored information that will require you to spend money on an intervention your home doesn’t need. When you need a private water testing laboratory to ensure the purity of your water, contact Environmental Testing and Research Laboratories.