Radon Home Measurement and
Mitigation

NEWS UPDATES

LATEST BUILDING CODE NEWS: (January 1, 2005): Passive Radon Mitigation Systems are now REQUIRED by current Building Code in Fort Collins (CO) for New Home Construction of one- and two-family dwellings.

BAD ODOR OR MUSTY SMELL SOMEWHERE IN YOUR HOME: go to our page MOLD for more information.

HIGH JOB CREATION INDEX RANKINGS: The Northern Colorado Business Report reported on March 6, 2006 that the Milken index – which measures where jobs are being created in the U.S. – showed that Northern Colorado was stronger than any other part of the state in job activity. Greeley, Fort Collins and Loveland scored high marks on a national comparison scale within certain high tech job growth categories.

(This web site consists of 26 linked pages for more information about a topic. Click any colored line segment in the following text to reach a new page with further details.)


Mission Statement: Radon Home Measurement and Mitigation (RHMM) performs radon testing of single and multi-family homes as well as radon testing in commercial or business locations, provides radon mitigation services and delivers radon education to interested groups and the public. RHMM also helps with any radon issue emerging during real estate transactions, helping real estate brokers, buyers and sellers to understand and deal with what may be a serious environmental health issue in a home. Our goal is to identify those places that represent a high radon exposure to the general public in residential, commercial and business environment and, after verification of an increased health risk, to fix the problem.
Furthermore RHMM works with home owners, contractors and builders by prescreening a building site before construction for its ability to show a radon risk concern after completion. If this radon risk analysis shows a predicted high concentration of radon, RHMM can install an effective pre-mitigation system in new home construction. RHMM, located in Fort Collins, can solve radon problems anywhere in Northern Colorado or Wyoming.

Dr. L. Moorman, an atomic and radiation physicist, is a scientist with construction experience and was president of RHMM since the start.


What is Radon?
The question "What is radon? is often the first reaction we are asked in talking with someone who is moving to our region of the country and has heard that our soil and rocks contain possibly more uranium than the soil in the region where they have moved from. The question is answered on this linked page not only by informing the reader what radon is but also where radon comes from and how it can be at concerningly high concentration levels in your current or future home.

Health effects by Radon in our homes:
The next logical question is how elevated levels of radon inside your (current or future) home can affect your health and whether there are groups in our population that are more at risk than others. Are there possibly groups in our population who have no risk at all so that they do not have to worry about radon? I answer these questions on the page: Who is at risk?

Measuring radon concentration in your home.
If you have read the linked pages above, you now understand what radon is, where it comes from, how it can affect our health and who is at risk. In the next few linked pages we give some more information about how to measure the radon level in your home and when is the best time for testing. It is best to use a testing company that is certified by the National Environmental Health Association (NEHA, or recently also the NRSB), because for a company to be certified they have agreed to follow the guidelines and standardized protocols formulated by the EPA (See below).
In order to give more background information we have added some Radon Statistics by County, and to emphasize the fact that the problem of radon in homes is a generally recognized health concern we added a statement from the U.S. Surgeon General about radon and health.

Two examples of radon tests following the EPA guidelines (during a 48 hour interval) for real estate transaction are:
Continuous Radon Monitor (CRM) has tamper resistant features built in for real estate transactions.

Passive Radon Test. This type is not influenced by increased humidity as some other tests are.

(Also see: radon in your Well water below)


Can something be done to lower the level of radon in a home?
So far we have only talked about radon as a problem, but can the problem be solved or should you abandon the thought of buying the home you have worked so hard for to afford? If there is a solution, how should you approach the problem? This is addressed on our page: What should you do when your home was tested and high Radon concentration levels were confirmed?

Example of five different systems installed by us to solve a high indoor radon problem:
These are examples as every house is different and an optimal solution can be found depending on the many details of your house. The first three examples are also called Active Soil Depressurization (ASD) systems and are based on the principle that the radon is captured under a radon barrier -- The barrier consists of the concrete basement slab that is hermetically sealed, or an impermeable barrier to be installed in a crawlspace -- and guided via a vent pipe to above the roofline using an active element in the form of a powerful, yet low noise in-line ventilator. The fourth example is based on an entirely different principle as explained. The fifth example shows how a crawlspace looks after the radon barrier is installed.

1: Interior Radon Mitigation System
In the case of an Interior System the pipe can be shielded from the outside view and noise can be kept away from interior finished areas.
In the first picture the ventilator is in the attic of this home. The vent pipe is here only visible as a small speck on the roof. The pipe routing went from unfinished basement into the kitchen pantry (backside wall) into the masterbedroom closet (along backside wall) into the attic and through the woodshake roof. The ventilator was placed in the attic immediately under the roof as shown in the next picture.

Interior System: Ventilator and pipe optimally shielded from the view, outside and inside.


Or the pipe can vent hidden through back side of garage roof:

Example how the ventilator can be placed in the attic of the home.

2: Exterior Radon Mitigation System
An Exterior Radon Mitigation System has the ventilator on the outside of the home, preferably out of view from street side and back sitting area because of visual and noise concerns. These systems are not less effective in removing the radon than interior systems but often allow a more cost effective approach at the cost of the visual and noise impact of the system on the outside of the house.

3: Super-Low-Noise Exterior Radon Mitigation System
This system was developed by us for one of our customers. The noise that the conventional exterior system (see example 2 above) made bothered her next to the sitting area on the deck. The conventional exterior system was inherited from the seller in the real estate transaction. The current home owner requested to transform the system in a radon mitigation system that gives the lowest-noise-possible. This became our "Super-Low-Noise" option.

Super Low Noise Exterior System: Minimizes noise in case the system has to be placed outside near a deck or sitting area. (Click photo to see more pictures)

4: Energy Recovery and Ventilation Radon Mitigation System
In the case of an Energy Recovery and Ventilation systems the principle of the mitigation is different from the conventional systems discussed above: A dilution of radon concentration is caused by constantly bringing in fresh air and removing stale air from basement or whole house. This is a good option if the building also benefits from fresh air circulation, such as in older buildings, buildings with odors in basement, or inaccessibly low crawlspaces ("engineered", suspended wood floors in basements, with a crawlspace equal or less than 2 feet high). Another example is when the basement or area is used as office and there are not a lot of windows and the area can use fresh air summer and winter.

5: Crawlspace Radon Removal System
In the case of a 4 foot high crawlspace in your home a conventional radon mitigation system (ASD) is installed (any one of the examples 1 through 3) in combination with a collector system under this white special radon barrier (black plastic is not a radon barrier) as is shown in various pictures (click photo for more pictures).

Are there qualified professionals who could help you solve your radon problem?
If you have decided to investigate what can be done about a radon problem in your (current or future) home there are professional mitigators that can help you. The National Environmental Health Association (NEHA) certifies mitigators (and recently also the National Radon Safety Board, NRSB). This means that these mitigators not only have gone through training but also agree to follow the EPA standards for radon mitigation. This is the best way to ensure that the mitigation system not only works immediately after implementation, but also for a long time after the project is done. Because of the knowledge of alternative systems by the NEHA certified mitigator it also ensures that he or she can help you find the most economic solution while staying within all EPA standards and guidelines.

Finally we would like to end this introduction to our webpages with a statement about the advantage of contracting a mitigator who is following the EPA standards. The EPA regulations within the radon health issue are not thought up to impose unnecessary burdens on homeowners (buyers, sellers or builders). In the words of the president of our company Dr. L. Moorman:

"I have investigated the guidelines for testing and standards for mitigation formulated by the EPA as it relates to the radon issue and found that there is a good reason for each of them: the guidelines and standards try in the best possible way to ensure that a homeowner can count on that he/she and his/her family have a minimum excess lung cancer risk over a lifetime and can be compared to someone living in a radon-free environment. The recommended standards included the most recent scientific information on this subject available when they were written in 1993 and 1994. (Standards for real estate transactions: mitigate if the radon concentration is measured above 4.0 pCi/L; consider to mitigate if measured between 2.0 and 4.0 pCi/L).

[Scientific information that has been published after these guidelines were written has confirmed that the EPA recommendation for radon reduction is set at an appropriately low radon concentration level (R. W. Field et al.: Iowa radon lung cancer study, Am. J. of Epidemiology, 151(11):1091-1102, 2000). ]

For the work of those homeowners, sellers or contractors who are ignoring or not willing to follow the EPA guidelines the above statement can not automatically be made. Ask the mitigator who presents an estimate for your radon mitigation if it follows the EPA standards of 1993 (and revision 1994). Do not settle for someone who only states he is "EPA-trained", unless he states he will follow the EPA guidelines when he is mitigating your home. The same should be true for your radon tester. A test result should state it is done following one of the EPA radon protocols and the tester or test laboratory should show a NEHA- or NRSB certification number (not an EPA-number, because they are not valid any longer) or the test is most likely not a test that follows the EPA guidelines".

Radon and Well water
If you live in the mountains and have measured that there is a large problem with radon in your indoor air environment, you may also want to read about how it is possible to determine whether the Radon in your Well water may add significantly to your health risk. We also give a criterion that answers the question whether this means that the water condition influences the normal indoor-air mitigation method, and whether alternative methods have to be applied in conjunction with it.


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Photos of our recent indoor air quality study at the WWCC campus

Photos of our radon mitigation in Breckenridge this week

The road towards radon mitigation systems of higher quality