Another major danger in the home – one that causes serious injury in lung cells, is radon, which silently hides in your living space, killing about 21,000 Americans each year. Although radon is a cancer-causing environmental hazard and not traditionally considered an injury, radon-related deaths can be avoided, and should be considered when assessing your home for safety.

Observe Home Safety Month by installing smoke and carbon monoxide detectors and safety devices to protect your children, and take other recommended measures to make yourself and your family safer in your home. And don’t forget to test for radon, the number one cause of lung cancer in nonsmokers, the second leading cause of lung cancer overall, and the cause of as many, if not more, home-related deaths than any other single, avoidable cause, including unintentional injuries.

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Houses of a certain age may have lead paint or pipes or asbestos materials. The mere presence of those materials doesn’t necessarily mean they’re dangerous. Inspections for those materials can help you decide whether they need attention and how to live safely with them in your house. Your local Association of Realtors® can help you find qualified inspectors for lead and asbestos.

One inspection that isn’t as obvious is testing for radon gas. It’s invisible, doesn’t smell, and you can’t know it’s there unless you test. Unlike lead and asbestos, it doesn’t matter how old the house is, whether it’s a walk-out basement or slab, or even whether it’s been tested before. Any house can have elevated levels of radon, even in neighborhoods where no other houses have elevated radon.

Radon is the number one cause of lung-cancer in non-smokers. If you smoke, radon makes your risk of lung cancer greater. With the increased use of nuclear medicines and diagnostics, the added radioactive dose of radon increases the risk even more. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has set 4 pCi/L (picoCuries per liter of air) as the “action level.” At 4 and above, EPA says you should bring the level down.

In September 2009, the World Health Organization suggested we lower our radon exposure to 2.7 pCi/L. Countries all over the world are beginning to implement this suggestion. If you decide your house should have levels of radon lower than the EPA action level, make sure you work with your Realtor® to specify that in your contract offer.

A straight-forward test can tell you if your house has elevated radon. Certified testers are available and can be found by accessing your state’s radon website or through your Association of Realtors® professional. A nationally trained and certified radon tester is especially important for testing radon during a real estate transaction to ensure the test is properly conducted by an objective third party.

If elevated levels of radon are found, a radon mitigation system can be readily installed, again, by a certified radon mitigation professional [link to Find a Contractor]. A properly installed system can reduce your radon concentration and give you better indoor air quality. Because the system reduces the humidity that enters your home from the ground, you will have a drier, better smelling, more comfortable basement that you and your family can feel comfortable living in.

Including radon testing and other environmental tests in your home purchase agreement can give you the confidence that the home you’re buying will be a healthy place to live and help ensure a sound real estate investment.

Trudy Y. Smith
Spruce Environmental Technologies, Inc.

Note: Even if you’re not buying a new home, it’s important to know whether your home has environmental hazards that might threaten your family. Testing for the deadliest hazard – radon – is easy and inexpensive. All you need is a home radon test kit.

Energy Recovery Ventilators (ERVs) are recommended for warmer, more humid climates.  They minimize energy loss by continuously supplying fresh air and exhausting stale air. ERVs reduce the strain on air conditioners, which saves on cooling costs.

Heat Recovery Ventilators (HRVs) also minimize energy loss by bringing a continuous supply of fresh air into a home while exhausting contaminated air. HRVs use a heat recovery core that transfers heat from the exhaust air stream to the incoming air stream. HRVs are recommended for colder climates.

Both HRVs and ERVs include a heat exchanger, and are generally whole-house ventilation systems with their own duct system or shared ductwork.  Both regulate the amount of water vapor in the air to help control the temperature in the house.  Most energy recovery ventilation systems can recover about 70%–80% of the energy in the exiting air and deliver that energy to the incoming air.  This can add up to substantial savings, especially for houses in climates that are very hot or very cold.

Radon is the Number 1 cause of lung cancer in nonsmokers according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Centers for Disease Control, the American Lung Association, and many other health and environmental agencies. But many of the more than 21,000 American lives lost each year due to exposure to deadly radon gas can be saved simply and relatively inexpensively. All we have to do is:

1. Test our homes for radon
2. Find a qualified radon mitigation contractor
3. Fix the radon if the level is above the EPA’s recommended level of 4.0 pCi/L (or the World Health Organization’s recommended level of 2.7 pCi/L)

The EPA, as part of its ongoing efforts to encourage Americans to test their homes for radon and fix them when radon levels are elevated, asked for 30-60 second video submissions with the theme “Radon: Test, Fix, Save a Life.” The winning entry, “Eddie’s Story,” was submitted by Benjamin Schultz and Michael Gentilini. In this video, lung cancer survivor Eddie Metcalf shares his personal story. If you have any doubts about testing your home for radon, listen to and watch Eddie as he relates his own experience.

The American Lung Association (ALA) and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts have recognized HomeAire’s sister companies RadonAway and AccuStar as “advocates of the effort to prevent radon-induced lung cancer through risk reduction.”   The companies received a “Fight for Air” award from the New England Chapter of the ALA, as well as official recognition from the Massachusetts State Senate, praising their “leadership in providing …equipment to protect the public from radon gas.”

“AccuStar Labs and RadonAway are proud to receive the Fight for Air award from the New England Chapter of the American Lung Association,” said Carolyn Allen, President of AccuStar labs. “We hope this recognition will help extend our call to prevent lung cancer into the medical community.  With the help of health care professionals, together we can spread the news that radon testing and mitigation save lives.”

In his acceptance speech, David Hill, VP of Sales and Marketing of Spruce Environmental Technologies, Inc., the parent company of AccuStar, RadonAway and HomeAire  said, “I’m humbled to be among tonight’s other honorees. Since I learned about our award, I’ve been thinking about what we might have in common with this very distinguished group of physicians, surgeons and researchers, and now I’ve realized what it is: We perform surgery on houses, fighting lung cancer by removing a carcinogen from people’s homes with our surgical tools – jackhammers, sawzalls and fans.”

Because radon is an odorless, colorless gas, the only way to test for it is with a home radon test kit.  If your home tests positive for radon, fear not!  Radon remediation and mitigation systems, equipped with radon fans are very effective at reducing or eliminating radon in the home.

Radon occurs naturally and can seep into homes and buildings through cracks, though it is impossible to detect without testing for it by hiring a testing professional or using a home radon test kit.  The U.S. Surgeon General recommends that people test their homes for radon every two years.

After conducting studies in Europe, North America, and China, WHO concluded that radon is a significant cause of 3 percent to 14 percent of worldwide lung cancer cases.  WHO’s new recommendations are for radon limits in homes to be set at 100 becquerel per cubic meter (the equivalent in the U.S. of 2.7 picocuries per liter), a significant change from the previous limit which was ten times greater.

The WHO’s recommendation is now more closely aligned with recommendations issued by the U.S. EPA, which recommends that you “fix your home if your radon level is confirmed to be 4 picocuries per liter (pCi/L) or higher.”  The EPA also says that “radon levels less than 4 pCi/L still pose a risk, and in many cases may be reduced.”  If your home does test high for radon, luckily there are ways to fix it.  A radon remediation system with a radon fan is an effective solution that has been used by millions of homeowners to reduce radon in their homes.

Green remodeling can be done at varying levels of cost and intensity designed to meet a wide spectrum of budgets.  At the higher end, a crew renovating a home in Minnesota spent $250,000 for an all out renovation including installing a radon mitigation system.

Some upgrades they performed are as follows:

1.    Energy Star-rated windows
2.    Low VOC paint
3.    Spray foam insulation
4.    Low flow faucets

Green remodeling and renovation can start with smaller steps like installing low-flow shower heads, fluorescent light bulbs in all fixtures, and using eco friendly paint in household projects.  You can learn more about how to make your home healthier by reading the EPA’s Guide to Healthy Homes.
 

The new program will do the same thing as the original cash for clunkers but is designed to get people to trade in their energy-hogging appliances for something bearing the Energy Star label.  With $300 million set aside for this stimulus plan the government intends to give out $50 to $200 rebates for new appliances.  The new appliances must be Energy Star certified, meaning they will save not only money but the environment.   

As an added bonus there is no trade-in required.  Each state will decide how to distribute the rebates and will begin doing so in late October.  Twenty-five states already have rebate programs.  The rest will be creating a whole new program.  To find out more information about stimulus projects in your state, click here.
 

Plantscaping is done for aesthetic pleasure but it provides numerous other benefits as well.  Indoor air quality is improved and stress is reduced in the homes and offices that have taken advantage of this trend.  Here are some ways using plantscaping (or having plants in the home) can help:

1.    Improved VOC levels
2.    Reduced mold and bacteria levels
3.    Reduced Stress
4.    Increased Productivity (if at an office)

This article talks more about the commercial side of plantscaping, but adding plants to any indoor environment does improve the indoor air quality.  Plants, along with proper ventilation systems, can help ensure that the indoor air your family breathes is healthy.