By KEN CARPENTER
Great Bend Post
The month of January has been declared Kansas Radon Action Month by Governor Laura Kelly. Radon is an odorless and invisible gas that can cause lung cancer. It is found in soil and can be detected inside buildings.
You can purchase a radon testing kit to find out if you have high levels of radon in your home. The Cottonwood Extension District in Great Bend sells the kits at "cost" for $6.50. They are also usually stocked in hardware stores. Cottonwood District Director Donna Krug explained how to use one of the kits.
“We do really recommend that if it’s been a while since you’ve tested, for you to test the lowest level where you spend time, a basement or a first floor,” Krug said. “It is a really good time because your houses are closed up right now, and that’s how we like to do it.”
Exposure to radon causes no immediate symptoms and often goes unrecognized until serious health complications arise. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that indoor radon contributes to 21,000 lung cancer deaths in the U.S. each year.
If high levels of radon are discovered in your home, it can usually be fixed by a certified radon contractor. Krug describes how that works.
“They have to drill a hole in the basement floor, and then they put a PVC pipe in there and it’s kind of like a soil vacuum cleaner,” Krug said. It’s going to have a low-wattage fan, and it’s going to pull the air that’s underneath the house out and away from the house. That will have the radon in it because radon is in the soil.”
More information about radon can be found HERE.