Uranium mining foes use scare tactics, pseudoscience | Richmond Times-Dispatch

Sadly, what also gets lost in the rhetoric in these situations is the settled science and known health hazards cause by exposure to Uranium. Whether they mine that area or not, indoor radon levels in many homes and businesses in that area are more than likely above the

EPA action level. Testing is the only way to know for sure.


Uranium mining foes use scare tactics, pseudoscience Richmond Times-Dispatch

Radon and selling your home...

If your home has already been tested for radon, providing your test results to any potential buyer is recommended. It is recommended that you use a certified tester so that reliability of the test results are not questioned.

If your home has not yet been tested for radon, make sure that a radon test is done as soon as possible. If you can, test your home before you put it on the market. This may save you valuable time during a real estate transaction. The test should always be taken in the lowest level of the home which is finished and suitable for occupancy. If your home has additions that are in contact with the ground, test those areas as well. The results of the radon test(s) should then be made available to potential buyers.

If your home has a radon mitigation system have your home tested every two years, per EPA recommendation. Testing to check the effectiveness of the mitigation system ensures safe levels are maintained as well as heads off any questions at the time of a real estate transaction. Maintain those test results and have them available to potential buyers.


In the Richmond area, we recommend Radon Ease for radon testing.


 

OUR EXPOSURE TO RADON IN A NUT SHELL...

Although radon is chemically inert and electrically uncharged, the radon progeny formed via the radioactive decay series are in fact electrically charged and readily attach themselves to microscopic dust particles present throughout an indoor environment.

These dust particles are frequently inhaled into the lungs or ingested (from drinking water) into the gastrointestinal tract.

The inhaled particles immediately attach to the lung alveoli while the ingested radon progeny are absorbed into the bloodstream and ultimately transported to the lungs.

The deposited progeny readily undergo subsequent radioactive decay processes by emitting alpha radiation which slowly penetrates the inner lung surface, disrupts DNA structure within lung cells, and can potentially induce lung cancer.

Dr. Oz Show: Lung Cancer Is Deadly and Test Your Home for Radon TODAY

Today on the Dr. Oz Show, we learned about Lung Cancer and how Radon in your home is a leading cause of it in non-smokers.


Dr. Oz says that lung cancer kills more than breast, colon and pancreatic cancers combined. If you know the warning signs and catch it early, you can survive. Last year in the US, over 220,000 patients were diagnosed with lung cancer, and nearly 160,000 people died of it. Most cases are caused by smoking, but you don’t have to smoke to get lung cancer.

Dr. Oz’s guests today were Dr. Otis Brawley, the Chief Medical Officer of the American Cancer Society and Regina Vidaver, the Executive Director of the National Lung Cancer Partnership.

The warning signs of lung cancer are first and foremost, a cough that doesn’t go away. After multiple rounds of antibiotics, if your cough has still not gone away, or if you’ve have a cough for more than a month, you need to see a doctor. If you’re coughing up blood, you need to see a doctor. And the last warning sign is pain in the chest, neck or shoulder.

Besides smoking, Vidaver says that ex-smokers are still at risk. Other risk factors are exposure to second-hand smoke, radon and then your genetics can predispose you to it as well. 20,000 people every year get diagnosed with lung cancer that never smoked.

The number one cancer risk in your home is radon. Rebecca Morley, the Executive Director of the National Center for Healthy Living says that when radon gets trapped in your home, it can become a problem as it is a Class-A carcinogen. One in 15 homes have radon in them! Everybody needs to get a test from the hardware store and check your home. The EPA acceptable Radon level is 4.0 pCi/L, but Morley said the World Health Organization set it at 2.7. If you have test results that are higher than acceptable levels, you need to have a company come in and do mitigation that removes the radon from your house and sends it out via a pipe in the roof.