How Radon Can Slowly Harm You
Radon is known as the silent killer because, unlike other carcinogens, it seems to come out of nowhere. With cigarette smoke, there’s sight, smell, and heat of the smoke itself. But radon has no such cues. Radon is a gas with radioactive properties, and it can be found in the environment around us naturally.
This gas has no taste, odour, or colour and can be released into the atmosphere when the uranium, found in the soils and rocks, decays and seeps to the surface through soil and water. Cancer can be caused by exposure to radioactive material and its decay, so it’s worth understanding just how radon slowly harms you. And because it’s known as the silent killer, radon testing is really the only way to come up with a mitigation solution before it harms your health.
How Most Single Residential Homes Are Exposed to Radon
Uranium can be found anywhere embedded within the earth’s crust and can break down to release certain radioactive elements. The byproducts can get into underground water streams, rising up to the surface as radon gas.
The silent killer is so-called because it can seep into your home without any way of detecting it – short of professional or over-the-counter radon test kits. The harm it causes comes slowly as it accumulates inside your home in areas with poor ventilation, especially during the winter months. This accumulation leads to dangerously high levels, which is where radon starts to cause harm. When it’s at or above certain levels, it can harm you slowly. The effects can ultimately result in a cancer diagnosis. Catching it in time is really your only option, which is why so many radon professionals constantly insist on professional radon testing.
The pressure of air within the home is lesser than what it is in the soil that surrounds the foundation of the home. Due to the pressure difference, gases from the surroundings flow into the home interiors. If radon is found in the surroundings and the soil of the home, it will also penetrate the home interiors. Your house may have certain openings at places where it contacts the surface and the ground. Radon may penetrate the house from these openings. Some examples of such openings include the construction joints, the cracks that occur in the foundation walls and floors, support posts, cavities, sumps, and floor drains.
Air that is found indoors may contain high and dangerous amounts of radon. The value is typically equal to or more than 200BQ/M3. Radon can seep inside the indoors from the nearby rocks and soil and can build up in indoor spaces that don’t have enough ventilation features.
Radioactive Decay
Humans are exposed to radioactive materials and the harmful effects of radioactive decay around the world. The radioactive material uranium may occur in the earth’s crust more frequently than humans believe. But it’s not always anthropogenic factors like nuclear facility meltdowns; it’s also due to natural exposures, a notable one being radon. Radon is dangerous because it’s radioactive, meaning there’s cause for alarm even if you don’t live near radioactive waste. It’s especially common for Canadian homes to have certain levels of radon.
The decay of radioactive materials over some time can result in health issues. Radioactive decay can expose humans to harmful subatomic activity and deadly radiation. Summed up, radioactivity has 3 effects. The first two are alpha and beta particle bombardment. These subatomic particles break off at high speed and can damage your lungs at the cellular level. The third part of radioactive decay is gamma radiation. Gamma radiation can destroy your lungs at the DNA level. When your cells and even cellular DNA strands are getting destroyed, cancer is often the result.
Lung Cancer
The effects of radioactive decay present in radon activity usually end up with one sure outcome, that being lung cancer. Health Canada states that radon increases the risk of cancers, including cancer in the lung. People who smoke are even more prone to suffer from cancer when exposed to radon. The latest reports reveal that exposure to radon gas at home may be a cause of up to 16% of the total deaths that occur due to lung cancer in Canada. More than 3,300 people die every year due to radon-related lung cancer. Smokers are even more prone to developing lung cancer when they are exposed to radioactive gases and materials such as radon, as they are dealing with exposure to multiple carcinogens daily or weekly. Exposure of humans to excessive and sustained radon levels can be dangerous and can be an invitation to cancers, including lung cancer. Fortunately, there are professional services available for testing the radon concentration inside a home or office interiors. The services also have the state of art resources and use the latest technology to reduce the level of radon inside a home. Homeowners should engage the services or carry out their tests by using the radon testing kits to find out the levels of radon within the home before it is too late.
Deepa Mahar is an independent blogger and admin of DeepAdvices who is exploring the beauty of the blog writing from a variety of subjects and books to health, science and others. She believes the blog would be helpful to the reader in the context of knowledge. She is post-graduated with a degree of Biotechnology.
