Have you tested your home for radon?

[RAW22]

I've NC'ed for this as it's massively outing to anyone who knows me but am a regular user.

Wondering how many people are aware of radon and/or have ever tested their home. I'm involved in this field professionally and one of the most common questions clients ask is "why hasn't anyone the government ever told us about this?". I found out about it when I graduated and happened to get a job with a company who dealt with it and I've spent the last 15 years trying to raise awareness as I think it's shocking more people aren't aware.

It's the leading cause of lung cancer in non smokers and responsible for over 1100 deaths in the UK every year. It's easy to test your house and costs around £40.

This week is UK Radon Awareness Week and today the campaign was focusing on families, so I thought this was a good place to share the information. Thursday will focus on schools which is a whole other issue - there are currently tens of thousands of children (and staff) being exposed to high levels in schools because the necessary risk assessments haven't been done. Worth asking your children's schools if they have done their risk assessment!

Happy to answer any questions on the subject.

It’s only in certain areas though, isn’t it?
The risks in my area are old mine shafts and red ash, that’s why mortgage lenders stipulate different tests/checks for different areas.

This came up in the docs when we bought our house (low risk). Didn’t know anything about it before!

Wow I had no idea. How do you test schools?

What can you do about it if you do find radon?

We live in Aberdeenshire and our house is currently being tested for radon with the kit you order from the government. I have around two more months to go for the results.

Our old house is built on granite but the Victorians must have been aware of the dangers of radon as we have air vents under the house. Our heating bill is atrocious though cos of the airflow. When it gets very cold in the winter, I'm ashamed to say we block the vents up hence why we're testing the house as a precaution.

I work for a housing association and our properties are tested SE.

Can anything be done if radon is found?

We have the radon barrier in our house
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Thanks for taking questions - What could a school do if they had high levels but no barrier?

Yes, but it’s not a one -time test and takes time to effectively collate data
. We live in NE Scotland in the Grampian mountains (granite) which is a radon hotspot. As I understand it Radon can collect in unventilated area such as basements, foundations etc.
It is a well known issue round these parts but more modern housing will usually incorporate ventilation to mitigate the risk.

Yes, paid for a test. We live in a high risk area. Our levels were fine thankfully.

Yes, certain parts of the country (and world) are at greater risk due to the underlying geology. You can check the estimated risk free by putting your postcode into the UK Health Security Agency map here www.ukradon.org. Anywhere where there's a greater than 1% risk of a home containing high radon levels is termed a 'radon affected area'. Worth noting that these maps are a prediction only, and are going to be updated on 1st December which will apparently lead to 3% more homes in England being in AAs and a slight decrease in Wales. Also any property with a basement is at higher risk, regardless of geographic location.

What's the recommendation if you test positive for high levels?

I am a physics teacher and we do teach about Radon in GCSE when looking at natural sources of radiation. We are in a low risk area but we do discuss it (it is on the spec) and look up postcodes to check risk.

The same way you test homes, by placing small detectors through the property, leaving in place for 3 months then sending to the laboratory for analysis. Pic of a radon detector attached.

The first step all employers (inc schools) are meant to take is to check the map and if located in an affected area they're legally obliged to carry out testing to assess the hazard. Only most employers gave no idea unless it's specifically drawn to their attention.

Just looked at the map. Cornwall is fucked!

It's really only an issue (a minor one) if you live in Cornwall or Aberdeenshire.

Then the remediation is household ventilation - something we should all be doing anyway.

Someone is making money.

Yes! I just typed a long reply then my phone lost it, but easiest answer is to watch this short video m.youtube.com/watch?v=c0TyEl357KU Remedial works are usually between £1000 - £2500 for a house, and no ripping up floors involved which is what people are often worried about.

can I please ask you some questions?

• does radon have any particular smell?
• our house has a basement and is in one of the slightly affected areas in london. The basement has 2 small air vents on each side. We don't spend much time in there. If there is radon, is it getting into the rest of the house? I admit I don't quite understand why properties with basements are worse...

Do you live in a relatively newbuild? Great you've got a barrier in but it's still recommended that you test as they require a lot of precision when installing tonne completely gas proof and sadly they aren't always completely effective.

Schools / older buildings would typically need either a radon sump or a positive input ventilation system to reduce high levels. I linked to a video further up that explains how they work.

I used to show this video when I was teaching.

Carry out remedial works. The average UK home has radon levels of 20 Bq/m3 and it's advised that if your level is above 200 Bq/m3 you should carry out works. There's also a lower level of 100 Bq/m3 where you're strongly advised to consider taking action if there's smokers or ex smokers in the household as they're at greater risk due to synergistic effect of tobacco + radon lung damage.

I’m only allowed to convert my cellar into living space if I have some kind of pump put in due to the high levels of radon and it’s fairly high everywhere on the ground floor. The whole town is the same though and I’m not aware of us having higher levels of lung cancer than anywhere else. The test itself may be £40 but I’m not sure many would prioritise spending thousands on getting the radon treated in their house at this time.

Check the maps - you may be surprised. Statistically you're much more likely to be affected by radon than by carbon monoxide poisoning, yet we're all aware of that risk so have carbon monoxide alarms and get our boilers serviced every year. You may consider it to be a minor risk which is obviously your assessment, but the point of this thread was to make others aware so they can do their own research and make their own assessment. As I said in my OP, so many people ask me why nobody ever told them about it and they wished they'd known sooner.

Is this something you’d need to worry about doing a basement conversion?