Two years ago, I spent approximately a month house-hunting and one of those trips, we visited a home that had a radon detector in it. The device looked innocuous enough, sitting in the basement ticking away, but it scared me enough that I had to do some research on it. Radon is a dangerous radioactive gas that, if it is allowed to collect in an unventilated area, can kill you, oftentimes slowly in the form of lung cancer if you inhale it. Radon is formed in the radioactive decay sequence of Uranium-238, but it only has a half life of 3.825 days and eventually ends up as a lead particle.
Radon gets into your house because it’s a gas, so if the decay process is occurring underneath your home, or near your home or whatever, then it could seep up in cracks or something. The EPA has a radon map that identifies the radon zones of the United States, it’s used so that builders are aware of the issue and build homes that are compliant.
So, to test for this stuff you need to get either a passive or active tester. A passive device is just one that collects particles and you will need to send it off to a tester to see if it comes up positive for radon or for the particles after it on the decay sequence of Uranium. An active device is one that does the analysis right then and there and they will need a power source.
If you have a radon problem, the solution is to keep the area or the area below the foundation very well ventilated, in fact it should be actively ventilated as in through the use of fans.
If you think you have a Radon problem, seek a professional because while the solution is fairly simple, this is serious stuff you don’t want to mess with.
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