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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To ask your experience of radon?

16 replies

downbutnotout2018 · 30/08/2019 16:03

I am in the process of buying a house since splitting from my ex. I just want to get it done now so I can have my pets back etc.
The survey has come back with radon levels just above target level of 100 bq. It has come back as 109. Anyone with any knowledge or experience or radon? I'm disappointed by this potential spanner in the works. Should I go ahead, bail out or what. I've searched the web so have lots of info but none of it is conclusive. I don't want to expose the DC to unecesary risks, but do want to move on and settle in our home asap.

OP posts:
MollyButton · 30/08/2019 16:20

I found this website and this blog to be very informative.

Lolyanta17 · 30/08/2019 22:32

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WhatNowDH · 30/08/2019 22:35

Pretty much all the houses in my town have radon levels way over the recommended amount. Something to do with being built on granite if I remember. I did look it all up when we first moved here and came to the conclusion that it was nothing to worry about.

Ohyesiam · 30/08/2019 22:37

we had this with a stone build in Cornwall. Apparently it’s just the deal with granite.

MadameCurie226 · 31/08/2019 07:27

At that level, I really wouldn't worry. Radon is everywhere at varying amounts and is not the only radiation source that we're exposed to, although for a lot of us, it's the biggest.

You're well below the action level and only a small amount above the target level. The target level is set as something to aim for for people who were above the action level of 300 and need to install measures to reduce the radon concentration - ie if your radon concentration was above 300, it's not enough to aim to make it just below 300, if your installing fans etc, you hope it's going to get much lower than that.

Read through all the website linked to by Molly. If it doesn't already say in your results/information, put the word target in the FAQs section to bring up the explanation

^The Action Level identifies radon levels above which action is most urgent but it is important that substantial reductions are made - not just aiming to get under the Action Level. The Target Level of 100 Becquerels per cubic metre aims to encourage householders to make major reductions in their radon level - to below the Target Level if possible.

Health risks below the Action Level are smaller but not zero. PHE advises householders with radon between the Target Level and the Action Level to seriously consider reducing their radon levels - especially if the household includes smokers or ex-smokers who are at greater risk from radon^

I think, when buying houses, they only recommend installing radon reduction measures (sumps, fans etc) when you're above the action level, at 109 the risk is small, so less necessary.

The main reason why radon is an issue is that there is a very very small risk for any small exposure and when you expose tens of millions of people, statistically it will effect a small number of people, but at the level you've quoted, the risk is almost immeasureably small.

MadameCurie226 · 31/08/2019 07:31

Oh, and radon exposure disproportionately affects smokers, so if you don't smoke, the risk from exposure is lower than if you do.

MollyButton · 31/08/2019 07:41

Another key thing is to think carefully before you out in extra insulation, will it also trap Radon?

JemimaCuddleMuck · 31/08/2019 07:51

When we bought our first house, the previous owners couldn't provide a radon report but said they'd had one and it came back fine. So our solicitor built in an indemnity to the sale that meant they'd keep back a certain amount of money from the sale until after we'd had a radon test done, then if it came back bad, we'd get that money for works.

Tests did come back with actionable levels and the money was used to install a sump.
The company that put it in did retests and tinkered with the sump over the next year or so but I don't think it ever got to below the recommended level.

We moved from that house a few years ago and to be honest I wish we hadn't bothered with the sump. Most radon research was done on miners who were exposed to much higher levels and so many other things as well. Seemed like residential radon measures were just big business.

In short, if you're really concerned you could see about an indemnity, but it's probably not something a non-smoker in a property below the action level needs to worry about.

Mousetolioness · 31/08/2019 17:17

When exH and I sold our first home, a first floor maisonette, the buyer asked if we'd had the radon level tested. 'Apparently' higher than acceptable levels had been recorded in the town in which we lived it according to radon 'experts'. We declined to arrange a test but told our purchaser we would be for her to arrange for a test to be carried out, at her cost. At the same time I asked her where her parents' lived and had they ever had radon level testing done. (I knew they lived in the same town as us.) Of course, they hadn't; purchaser thought about it and realised maybe it wasn't a necessity after all.

HotFeet · 31/08/2019 17:21

Speak to your solicitor on this but you get the seller to pay a deposit/insurance premium for the buyer to then install proper vents/work's etc it's no biggy really. Lots of stuff on google.

recrudescence · 31/08/2019 17:28

I misread the thread title and thought it was about Radox bath salts. I’m afraid I don’t know anything useful about radon but I will say that property surveys always put the shits up you somehow.

downbutnotout2018 · 31/08/2019 18:28

Haharecrude scene you're right. The survey does always put the shits up you doesn't it!! Spot on. And I do like a radox bath too 😀😉

OP posts:
MadameCurie226 · 31/08/2019 18:43

Mouse

Radon is only a hazard in ground floor and below ground areas, so a first floor maisonette wouldn't need to be tested anyway.

Greatnorthwoods · 31/08/2019 18:52

Radon is a airborne alpha emitter, you can mitigate against this by installing a fan to suck the air out.

100Bq/m3 is 2.7PCi, to put that in perspective if you were inside 24/7 for the rest of your life, your risk of lung cancer increases 16%

DH works in the nuclear/radiation industry, he would buy it.

SlackerMum1 · 31/08/2019 19:00

We had this - in the process of buying a house at the moment and the local survey has shown up its in a mildly elevated radon area. I was a bit worried until I remembered we already live on the other side of the street (outside the elevated area apparently). As well as walking that route every day. So concluded 🤷‍♀️

downbutnotout2018 · 31/08/2019 19:45

Greatnorth that is useful to know thank you!!

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