You Know What Really Grinds My Gears? Now with 3x more gears...

[TorqueDog]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

When I was looking into my radon issue, I did find some legitimate discussions around stuff like the protective radon dose, such as this one:


https://www.sciencedaily.com/release...0325122807.htm


The mechanisms describe do seam to make sense and have validity, but having monitored my radon I also know it varies wildly and even if your goal was to somehow have its protective dose in your home, there is no way to do it predictably. And the evidence it is harmful at higher doses seems pretty strong, so the current recommendations make sense, even if there are some "ya, but's" around.

The other problem is that ScienceDaily article is from a single Worcester County study in 2008 that suggested low "typical home" radon levels might actually lower lung cancer risk. But in the face of current data, it's an outlier.

The larger pool of control study data pretty reliably shows the opposite: lung cancer risk climbs by about 8-16% per 100 Bq/m3, even at common residential levels. The data for that conclusion includes a sample size of thousands of people across Europe and North America, rather than just a single location.

Every major health and radiation protection org. still bases guidelines on that evidence and none of them have adopted the notion that in-home radon is in any way beneficial or protective. Aside from that, Alberta has among the highest radon sampled in Canada, ~18.5% of tested homes are at or above 200 Bq/m3, and ~42% at or above 100 Bq/m3. So even if there was some validity to the whole 'but some radon is good' theory, someone living here would be at a higher risk of having a radon level higher than is safe relative to other parts of the country. I had my last detached SFH in Garrison Green tested by Evict Radon, and it came back at 145 Bq/m3, which is the rough equivalent of 26 chest X-rays per year -- lower than Canada considers harmful, but higher than several European countries.

ScienceDaily articles are "press release" format and not peer-reviewed like something you'd find on PubMed, and they don't always update their content when newer / stronger evidence to the contrary comes to light. I will be the first to admit that there can still be useful information found from sources that aren't yet peer-reviewed like pre-prints, but I'm also the first to point out that something is a pre-print and to use some healthy skepticism when making important decisions based on its findings.

[Fuzz]

The thing with those long term tests is they are also an average. In the past month mine has been as high as 189 and as low as 25. Some good climactic conditions can drag the average down, but the hidden highs are still damaging.


Before winter hits I need to seal that giant hole under my furnace, and if that doesn't help look at remediation. Sealing up the house over the years has had a drawback...

[Bigtime]

Here is our home the year we did the remediation in July. Data from an Airthings monitor on our main floor (basement numbers were much higher pre-remediation).

[curves2000]

It's interesting to me how many people these are obsessed with things like Radon. It's radon monitoring, testing. Friends took their family to Radium and refused to get into the hot springs for fear of radon for their young children.

I think as a result of having the ability to research things on the fly with our smart phones, people have lost the ability to think and reason logically. When I laughed at the above with my friends and questioned what they bathed their children in and what they fed them food/water wise, I was given a strange look as if water in Radium, Banff or Calgary is drastically different.

It literally seems that everybody I know is worried about radon now, has sleep apnea and requires a machine or a $5k mouth guard.

This kinda leads to my minor gear grinder, what is up with the non stop ads and product placement for stool softener like restoralax, gummies, Metamucil?? Seems like it's everywhere and everybody on it, even young and healthy. Is it a result of a ton of people with GI, gluten and Ozempic related issues?

[PepsiFree]

Originally Posted by curves2000

It's interesting to me how many people these are obsessed with things like Radon. It's radon monitoring, testing. Friends took their family to Radium and refused to get into the hot springs for fear of radon for their young children.

I think as a result of having the ability to research things on the fly with our smart phones, people have lost the ability to think and reason logically. When I laughed at the above with my friends and questioned what they bathed their children in and what they fed them food/water wise, I was given a strange look as if water in Radium, Banff or Calgary is drastically different.

It literally seems that everybody I know is worried about radon now, has sleep apnea and requires a machine or a $5k mouth guard.

This kinda leads to my minor gear grinder, what is up with the non stop ads and product placement for stool softener like restoralax, gummies, Metamucil?? Seems like it's everywhere and everybody on it, even young and healthy. Is it a result of a ton of people with GI, gluten and Ozempic related issues?

Yeah it’s crazy when people treat health conditions and address health risks. Absolutely wild.

Most ads are targeted, FYI.

[Wormius]

Originally Posted by curves2000

It's interesting to me how many people these are obsessed with things like Radon. It's radon monitoring, testing. Friends took their family to Radium and refused to get into the hot springs for fear of radon for their young children.

I think as a result of having the ability to research things on the fly with our smart phones, people have lost the ability to think and reason logically. When I laughed at the above with my friends and questioned what they bathed their children in and what they fed them food/water wise, I was given a strange look as if water in Radium, Banff or Calgary is drastically different.

It literally seems that everybody I know is worried about radon now, has sleep apnea and requires a machine or a $5k mouth guard.

This kinda leads to my minor gear grinder, what is up with the non stop ads and product placement for stool softener like restoralax, gummies, Metamucil?? Seems like it's everywhere and everybody on it, even young and healthy. Is it a result of a ton of people with GI, gluten and Ozempic related issues?

Your friends sound very exhausting and are a very bad sample set to use for the whole of humanity.

[peter12]

It does seem like everybody has sleep apnea now.

[edslunch]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

https://recycleyourbatteries.ca/recy...-8fb7f6f5-9cd2


Kind of interesting, I wonder if there is a requirement to actually tell consumers this? If a retailer pays, it's not gonna show up until you pay. If someone up the chain pays, it will be worked into the product price. So lets say Energizer has the retailer pay and Duracell has the distributor, how will the customer know they are getting dinged at the till when they grab the cheaper* Energizer pack?

There had better be an education component to go with this. I bet most people just throw their batteries in the trash even though they aren’t supposed to and places like Staples will take them back.

[edslunch]

Originally Posted by peter12

It does seem like everybody has sleep apnea now.

Yes, but no one is getting a cpap just to be cool. It’s a real issue for many people and treating it is seriously beneficial.

[curves2000]

Originally Posted by PepsiFree

Yeah it’s crazy when people treat health conditions and address health risks. Absolutely wild.

Most ads are targeted, FYI.

I actually think it's 100% important for everybody, myself included, to address their health risks and concerns. Nobody is doubting that. I just think because of technology, smartphones, fake news and a lack of critical think skills a lot of people have lost the ability to rationalize basic things health wise.

We literally all see it online and out in public with people. Carnivore diet stupidity, crazy stupid health and diet claims. People who are convinced that vaping is the much better option than smoking. Anti vaxxers who go on Ozempic to lose weight for dubious reasons when they are not diabetic. So many people I know with CPAP machines for who knows what reason other than they got sold it.

I just think people have gotten away from some of the basic things that we have known to be true for generations.

[btimbit]

I got a CPAP machine because Transport Canada said I had to. Definitely wasn't social media.

I'm sure those 'who knows what reason' people probably had sleep tests done, and that's the reason

[Wormius]

Don’t blame technology and smartphones for fad diets. Those started a long time ago. People were drinking radium-laced elixirs in the early 1920s for so-called health benefits.

[SportsJunky]

WTF?
"Anti vaxxers who go on Ozempic to lose weight for dubious reasons when they are not diabetic."

[blender]

Just to jump back on the radon topic, I just completed the the installation of the piping and membrane component of a soil gas abatement system in a 20,000 square foot elementary school crawlspace. BIG job. I had 100 man-days of dudes crawling around down there.

[fotze2]

What sales guy books a 7 am meeting? Are you dumb?

[Ashartus]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

When I was looking into my radon issue, I did find some legitimate discussions around stuff like the protective radon dose, such as this one:


https://www.sciencedaily.com/release...0325122807.htm


The mechanisms describe do seam to make sense and have validity, but having monitored my radon I also know it varies wildly and even if your goal was to somehow have its protective dose in your home, there is no way to do it predictably. And the evidence it is harmful at higher doses seems pretty strong, so the current recommendations make sense, even if there are some "ya, but's" around.

When agencies like Health Canada are setting limits/guidelines they follow the precautionary principle. There is a lot of noise in the data, e.g. your probability of getting cancer from radon exposure would be influenced by how much time you spend in the basement, genetic susceptibility, health/lifestyle, etc., and you also have other potential causes of lung cancer. So you don't exactly get a nice clean data set giving you a straight line on a graph relating radon concentration to cancer risk. They make a near-worst case estimate based on the best interpretation they can do from the data. So really the interpretation of these limits should be "if I am below the limit, there is no indication in current science I am at risk; if I am above the limit we don't know for sure."


Guidelines like this are also updated infrequently so they don't always reflect the absolute latest science. I haven't kept up with radon research enough myself to know whether emerging science merits a re-evaluation, digging into the research in that much detail is more work than I want to do when I'm not getting paid to do it

[indes]

Originally Posted by curves2000

It's interesting to me how many people these are obsessed with things like Radon. It's radon monitoring, testing. Friends took their family to Radium and refused to get into the hot springs for fear of radon for their young children.

I think as a result of having the ability to research things on the fly with our smart phones, people have lost the ability to think and reason logically. When I laughed at the above with my friends and questioned what they bathed their children in and what they fed them food/water wise, I was given a strange look as if water in Radium, Banff or Calgary is drastically different.

It literally seems that everybody I know is worried about radon now, has sleep apnea and requires a machine or a $5k mouth guard.

This kinda leads to my minor gear grinder, what is up with the non stop ads and product placement for stool softener like restoralax, gummies, Metamucil?? Seems like it's everywhere and everybody on it, even young and healthy. Is it a result of a ton of people with GI, gluten and Ozempic related issues?

Most people are just fat and out of shape. I was approved for a cpap machine 1.5 years ago after a sleep test, I was also booked to get my gall bladder removed after several serious attacks, I was looking at knee surgery and had constant chiropractor appointments for my lower back.

I took my diet and exercise seriously, lost 30lbs and got into decent shape and presto! All of my ailments went with the weight. Not a single gall bladder attack (despite eating the same things that gave me attacks before), no lower back or knee pain and I sleep like a baby. Mind you I'm only 36 and was 220ish pounds, so probably not even in the 50% for BMI among middle aged adults. Couldn't imagine being more unhealthy than that

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by Ashartus

When agencies like Health Canada are setting limits/guidelines they follow the precautionary principle. There is a lot of noise in the data, e.g. your probability of getting cancer from radon exposure would be influenced by how much time you spend in the basement, genetic susceptibility, health/lifestyle, etc., and you also have other potential causes of lung cancer. So you don't exactly get a nice clean data set giving you a straight line on a graph relating radon concentration to cancer risk. They make a near-worst case estimate based on the best interpretation they can do from the data. So really the interpretation of these limits should be "if I am below the limit, there is no indication in current science I am at risk; if I am above the limit we don't know for sure."


Guidelines like this are also updated infrequently so they don't always reflect the absolute latest science. I haven't kept up with radon research enough myself to know whether emerging science merits a re-evaluation, digging into the research in that much detail is more work than I want to do when I'm not getting paid to do it

I'm not really sure they do make a worst case estimate, I think the EU is lower. Given the prevalence and realities of natural radon, from what I remember reading they set the level aware of the practicalities as well. I think. Someone else can do the research.

[Jiri Hrdina]

Originally Posted by curves2000

This kinda leads to my minor gear grinder, what is up with the non stop ads and product placement for stool softener like restoralax, gummies, Metamucil?? Seems like it's everywhere and everybody on it, even young and healthy. Is it a result of a ton of people with GI, gluten and Ozempic related issues?

Such a weird take.
Metamucil has a long list of benefits to help in your digestion, blood sugar management, regularity. And if you are using the powder instead of gummies, it's a great way to remind yourself to drink lots of water. It also helps lower cholesterol.

It's one of the easiest things to do, that offers several benefits, and no downside.

Just because you don't seem to know enough about it, don't assume those that take it, haven't educated themselves. Or trusted their medical professional.

[Fuzz]

If you are seeing those ads, you are watching old people TV.