We’ve been living in an apartment for 1 year (moved in mid-June 2018) and are moving out in two weeks. In April, I did a short-term (2-5 days) residential radon test, and it came back at 2.8 pci/L. Did another short-term test last week–came back at 5.1, above the EPA action guideline of 4.0. I’m unsure how worried we should be, given that we’ve only lived here for a year and are moving in two weeks, as the literature seems to be based on long-term (4+ year at least. most commonly 10+ year) exposure levels. Thoughts? Thanks.
Are you using mail in kits? Those can be very inaccurate. If you are concerned, get a radon meter from Amazon that has continuos sampling and get at least a couple of months of readings before making any conclusions.
I would not worry about those readings. BTW, did you have any granite in the apartment?
Is it a basement? Is it well ventilated?
Short term kits are terribly inaccurate. There is even controversy about the studies the EPA used to establish the threshold. I wouldn’t worry at all.
I live in a high radon area, with the home I grew up in measuring 40 when my parents left.
That’s not to say that there is no risk because I don’t have lung cancer, as I know the feds have said there is no safe level of exposure. (Hopefully my family and I will escape lung cancer in the long term. ?)
But living for one year in a place with possible marginal levels of radon? I wouldn’t worry, but address it whenever you move to a new place.
ALA says 90% of lung cancers are relate to smoking, so up to 10% are related to other causes that include radon.
Worrying will only add another risk factor (i.e., stress).
You can’t undo your exposure and it’s very marginal. I don’t believe it will have much, if any, effect on your longterm health.
We recently sold a house that had tested OK when we bought it but was above 4 when we sold it. Both times were professionally set tests. After the bad test result we retested with side by side monitors and it was still above 4. Sellers requested and received allowance for radon mitigation.
My D spent a lot of time in the basement doing art projects. If I had known, I would have done things differently but no use crying over spilt milk.She is getting extra exposure to radiation because she flies a lot but I wouldn’t change that.
Do not worry. Especially since you are moving and can’t change the past. I’m surprised you bothered to test given that you were moving out. You can live your life worrying over every little thing or you can enjoy normal places and activities while being happily ignorant of remote possibilities. When we were in medical school we sometimes thought we might have the disease we were studying even thought the possibility was remote. Some things are best kept out of site/out of mind. Do not go looking for trouble- you will find it.
The biggest risk is to smokers:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3673501/
“…The strong synergism between radon exposure and smoking as risk factors is a critical aspect of the relationship between radon and lung cancer.2,4,9 That is, the absolute magnitude of the lung cancer risk associated with radon exposure is significantly higher for ever-smokers than for never-smokers. It is estimated that 86% of radon-related lung cancer deaths are in current and former smokers.7,10…”