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Originally Posted by wireframe
I've never tested for radon but now you guys are freaking me out. Which test should I get?
Is the risk lower in an old house? For some reason, I thought radon was a new-build problem. My house is from the 50's and I never even considered radon testing until now.
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It really is about the ground that you are built on.
This is a good summary of it from a skeptical point of view. It is dangerous at high levels but the relative risk is actually pretty low.
https://skeptoid.com/episodes/4698
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Calculating your real risk is a bit more complicated. Your risk depends on other things as well: two most significantly. The first is where you live, because natural levels of radon vary a lot; and the second is whether you smoke. Of that 21,000 annual deaths from radon, only 2,000 of them are among people who have never smoked. Smoking is just not good for you, and among its hazards is making your lungs far more vulnerable to the kind of damage done by alpha radiation, though the exact mechanism for this isn't yet clear.
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So risk is much higher if you Smoke. Also, it costs $2500ish to mitigate. Have to decide if that is worth the money for a low risk of having an issue.
5.4 pi/CL (what they use in the US) is equivalent to 200 Bq/m3 (what we use in Canada).