If you haven’t thought about the possibility of radon in your home, you should begin doing so. After all, the chances of radon in your home are likely higher than you realize, with one out of every fifteen houses not only having radon in your home, but having radon in your home that is above the action level for radon in your home that has been set by the Environmental Protection Agency (more colloquially known as the EPA). Fortunately, radon testing is highly accurate, and radon mitigation companies work to remove radon in your home back down to at least the levels that have been deemed to be safe by the EPA, if not even lower.

But why remove radon in your home? Unfortunately, though radon is a gas that is odorless, tasteless, and has no smell, it is not a benign one, and radon in your home is likely to lead to any number of health problems if it is left untreated. Some of these health problems will be your basic chemical sensitivities, but some are much more severe. In fact, radon in your home can even lead to the development of lung cancer.

Actually, the presence of not only radon in your home but of radon in homes all throughout the country is now considered to be the second leading cause of lung cancer here in the United States, falling behind only smoking and other such tobacco use. In fact, up to twenty thousand people will die – on a yearly basis – as a direct result of the lung cancer that they have contracted through consistent radon exposure over the course of time.

And lung cancer is not an easy disease to live through nor an easy disease to die from. It is often very aggressive and fast spreading and is sometimes even resistant to the treatments available for it, such as those of chemotherapy and radiation. Though some people do find themselves in remission for a period of time, this is not necessarily the norm. After all, most people find out that they have lung cancer far too late in the game, when the disease has already progressed past the point of being easily and thoroughly treated and eradicated, respectively.

Fortunately, however, there are steps that can be taken in the world of radon abatement to counter the growth of lung cancer cases caused by the presence of radon in your home or even in your work space (depending on how much time you spend there). And the data backs this up. In fact, it has been found that the reduction of radon in homes all throughout the United States would actually decrease lung cancer deaths by as much as four percent and likely no less than two percent. This would mean that about five thousand lives would be saved per year.

,br>If you suspect radon in your home or have simply not had it tested before, calling a radon testing contractor from a reputable radon testing company is very much advisable. This residential radon testing contractor will provide your home with a short term or a long term test, the two types of tests that are currently used in the process of detecting radon in the typical home.

The short term test will measure radon levels in as short of a period of time as two days but for up to ninety days, if this is deemed to be necessary. If it is known by the residential radon testing service that a long term test will fit the situation better, that is likely what will be used from the get go. This long term test will measure the radon levels in your home for up to ninety days and long beyond it as well.

If radon is detected at levels that exceed the bar that has been set by the EPA for safety in the presence of radon, radon mitigation services will need to be performed. Luckily, just about every family can use passive forms of mitigation to help this process along, as passive mitigation can be very effective at reducing overall radon levels.