Is radon a serious problem for me? The home next door had a test and the results came back at only 140 Bq/m3 which is below the guidelines for fixing from Health-Canada.
There are two ways to answer your question Manoor.
The first answer assuming the question is based upon health-risk is, radon is a serious problem for everyone if the concentration and exposure are high.
If the question is based upon what levels you might experience in your home, we really don’t have sufficient statistics to answer this concretely. We do know that in the limited number of homes tested in Canada there is no correlation between the location of the home and levels of radon in the homes. Every home is constructed slightly differently and is located above different sub-terranean soil makeup. We’ve had homes next to each other with measurement differences of over 400%.
The way in which radon permeates through the soil to the surface (or in a home’s case the basement floor) is different and can differ depending upon the season, the temperature and the soil condition.
This is why we chose to adopt the principle of measuring radon in a home based upon the defects that might allow radon into the home, rather than the long-term risk. Because long-term testing takes a long time, it does take into account variations in the way in which radon enters the home. It does give you a long-term view of the exposure rates, over the time the measurement is made. what it can not tell you is the likelihood of that measurement getting better or worse over time.
A short-term measurement as in the OCRMI protocol gives you an indication that the home has a defect that allows radon into the home, giving it the potential to build-up and cause a problem. You get to know almost right away, so can act on the results right away. You get to know if the defect in the home has the potential to pose a serious concern of exposure to high-levels of radon. That we believe would answer your question.