Already decided you want to have your home tested?  (greater Vernon area)
RadonBC maintains an inventory of ACCUSTAR Alpha Track detectors. These detectors are the most common type of homeowner test. Or for $195.00 RadonBC will place an Alpha Track detector in your home or business, retrieve it after the appropriate testing period,  91-365 days, oversee the shipping to the accredited laboratory for analysis, and communicate the results with recommendations based on current Canadian standards.  This testing program meets all standards for a recognized long term test (91-365 days). Use the contact page below or email me.  mailto:dan@danirvine.ca

Wondering what the two images above have to do with each other? Watch this space for the answer.
...or email the correct answer to win a Rn test kit.

Frequently Asked Questions about Radon Gas

What the heck is this Radon Gas stuff anyway?
Rn 222 comes after Radium in the radioactive decay chain and is present in varying levels in rocks, soil and water. Radon is the only inert gas that is radioactive. Radon radioactivity emits Alpha particles which travel at approximately 5% of the speed of light. These particles have 2 protons and 2 neutrons and 0 electrons. The short answer: Rn gas is a radioactive gas that emits alpha particles which have a harmful effect on the DNA in lung tissue cells.


If Rn gas is naturally occurring why should I be concerned?
This is a great question and comes up all the time.  Rn occurs in varying degrees from barely measurable to levels hundreds of times higher than the current recommended Canadian actionable residential limit of 200 Becquerels. Bq/M3.  Rn in outdoor air dissipates as soil and rock off-gas so background outdoor levels can be much lower than indoor readings in the same vicinity. Where it becomes an issue is when Rn gas is trapped and allowed to concentrate. One recent blog post (yes this nerd actually reads Rn blogs) attempted to dispel the harmful "myth" by saying that if it was true then every sandbox in the world is a potential health risk.  Well, not true as the naturally occurring off-gassing that takes places is dissipated in outdoor air...but, if you had a sandbox in a high Rn area and you played in it under a cover which didn't allow air changes to take place then you definitely would be playing in a high Rn environment. Our homes and workplaces are subject to the same phenomena.  Rn gas is naturally emitted from the soil or rock, becomes trapped in crawlspaces or under concrete slabs and finds its way in to our indoor environments through cracks, openings for ducts and pipes, and ends up in our lungs.  The short answer: The health risk associated with Rn gas is increased by our building practices which trap this gas and allow it to build up, primarily in the lower levels of our indoor environments.


What is a Becquerel...or a Picocurie for that matter?
In 1903 the Nobel Prize for physics was awarded jointly to Henri Becquerel and Marie and Pierre Curie.  These people were pioneers in our understanding of the characteristics of radioactive materials and Henri Becquerel is credited with discovering radioactivity itself.  Their names were adopted as measurement units. Becquerels in Canada/UK and Curies in the US.
Madame Curie is credited with the observation that the temperature of an object can actually be raised by light too high in the spectrum to be visible to humans (more on this later) A Becquerel is one nuclear disintegration of an atom, as it sheds an ALPHA PARTICLE, per cubic meter per second. The current Canadian Health Canada recommendation of 200 Bq/M3 means 200 disintegrations per second for every cubic meter of air.  This is down from 800 Bq/M3 which was the recommended limit from 1988 - 2007. USA EPA guidelines work out to lower limits of around 150 Bq/M3, or 4 picocuries, for their residential recommendations. (Much of the info you will see on Rn is in these measurements, multiply 1 picocurie by 37 to get Becquerels)
The short answer: Becquerels and picocuries are standard measurement units of radioactivity. Canada and the UK use 200 Bq as a limit, the USA uses 150 Bq (4 picocuries), and the World Health Organization recommends 100 Bq/M3 as a safe limit for indoor air.

Soooo...what do I do now.? I have a reading I want to mitigate. Click on the 3 bar icon at the top of this page.
A careful system design, properly installed, can generally lower Rn to acceptable levels. System installation employs several aspects of the construction trades. Good Rn mitigators will be able to pull these skills together in implementing this third stage of your management program. Skillful operation of diamond coring apparatus can make the installation less invasive than you may think. If you have a reading you want to mitigate, or you are still curious, click on the mitigation tab at the top of this page for pics and further explanations.