Low radon levels buying a house?

helpimcrap

helpimcrap

helpimcrap

Soldato
Joined
13 Jan 2004
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Location
Leicestershire
Hey all,
We are buying a house and it has been identified as negligible radon levels.

I realise it's in every rock etc but I'd it an issue as girlfriend had cancer before.
 
Every house will have some radon present, it depends on baseline levels due to geography and construction.

Not sure why you'd worry about negligible levels? It's high levels you want to worry about. You'll never get zero radon.
 
Radon levels tend to be an issue in places like basements without adequate ventilation.

If its a typical house (no basement) and you have ample ventilation then its not going to be an issue
 
It was something raised as present and obviously my partner was concerned. I said negligible means very little but said I'd ask the all knowing for opinions. ;)
 
helpimcrap said:
It was something raised as present and obviously my partner was concerned. I said negligible means very little but said I'd ask the all knowing for opinions. ;)
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AFAIK Radon is found in pretty much all rocks and soil.

I can understand why your partner would be uber wary of it though, not sure saying it's pretty much everywhere would put their mind at rest or not.

Edit: Found an interactive map, not sure if it'll help

UKradon - UK maps of radon

www.ukradon.org www.ukradon.org
 
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It got picked up on the searches for my current house. Mild panic but then wife and I checked our growing up homes and it was like ultra high lol.
 
Places with Granite outcroppings like Aberdeen and Cornwall are more prone to radon gas. Luckily not many people live there.
:p
 
I wouldn't worry if they've said it's negligible, radiation is indeed very scary but i wouldn't worry about naturally occurring stuff like that.

Taking 1 flight up in a plane gives you far far more exposure and no one seems to care about that.
 
sovietspybob said:
I wouldn't worry if they've said it's negligible, radiation is indeed very scary but i wouldn't worry about naturally occurring stuff like that.

Taking 1 flight up in a plane gives you far far more exposure and no one seems to care about that.
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Average dose for Flight crew is 2.19 mSV annually according to this https://hps.org/publicinformation/ate/faqs/commercialflights.html

If I check my own records (the airline keeps track of it as legally they are required to), my exposure over the last 365 days is 2.8533mSV across 688 block hours.

The background radiation of living in the UK in general is 2.7mSV, while living in eg Cornwall results in an annual exposure of 7.8mSV http://wordpress.mrreid.org/2011/12/28/radiation-in-the-uk/

So I’m going to call boohickey on one flight giving you far more exposure! A single transatlantic flight on average results in 0.08mSV (source) so if you live somewhere with the UK average you’d have to take 64 trans Atlantic flights per year to catch up to someone that just lives in Cornwall.
 
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Zeeflyboy said:
Average dose for Flight crew is 2.19 mSV annually according to this https://hps.org/publicinformation/ate/faqs/commercialflights.html

If I check my own records (the airline keeps track of it as legally they are required to), my exposure over the last 365 days is 2.8533mSV across 688 block hours.

The background radiation of living in the UK in general is 2.7mSV, while living in eg Cornwall results in an annual exposure of 7.8mSV http://wordpress.mrreid.org/2011/12/28/radiation-in-the-uk/

So I’m going to call boohickey on one flight giving you far more exposure! A single transatlantic flight on average results in 0.08mSV (source) so if you live somewhere with the UK average you’d have to take 64 trans Atlantic flights per year to catch up to someone that just lives in Cornwall.
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I wanted to call BS on that too. I couldn't believe even a long flight would equal a years exposure in a high radon area, but couldn't find decent numbers. You're looking at 1.5 mSV a year extra easily from going from a normal to a high radon area.
 
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