BC Lung Association steps up to offer short-term radon testing
By Contributor
The BC Lung Association has partnered with Radon Environmental Management Corp to provide a faster way to find out if your home, school or workplace has potentially unhealthy indoor radon levels, the leading cause of lung cancer after smoking.
“Waiting for months to find out if your home, school or workplace’s indoor radon levels are a lung cancer risk is not easy,” said Scott McDonald, CEO of the BC Lung Association.
“No one should have to suffer from preventable radon-caused lung cancer.”
“Until now we offered only long term radon test kits. Today we’re excited to be able to offer both short and long term radon testing products for air and water thanks to our new partnership with Radon Environmental,” continued McDonald.
“Both short term tests can give people a sense of whether or not their home, school or workplace is potentially at-risk for unhealthy indoor radon levels within 48 hours to a month depending on which of two short-term testing options is chosen,” said Alan Whitehead, CEO of Vancouver-based company Radon Environmental Management Corp, providers of scientifically accurate solutions for radon testing and mitigation.
“This is much faster than a long term test which takes three months to a year.”
Two short-term options are now available. One provides radon test results within a few days for $250-$300 and the other, which takes 10 to 30 days and provides results within 10 days following test completion costs $60.
The benefits to affordable short term testing are particularly helpful to real estate professionals, new home builders, and building inspectors. Patty Leclerc-Zanet, a Certified Realtor from Trail, BC understands the benefits to short term testing.
“If a client is spending a lot of money to buy their dream home, and they know it’s in a radon risk area, they’re going to want a timely approach to find out if there’s an issue,” says Leclerc-Zanet.
“Short term tests are one way to provide information on radon potential and where people need a faster way to gain insights into whether or not a property has a potential radon problem that needs to be addressed.”
“We do recommend both a short and long term radon test be conducted,” said McDonald.
“This is because radon levels can vary over time and especially from season to season. To be sure short term test results are accurate, we suggest people also do a long term test, thus monitoring radon levels for a minimum of three months to be sure they are consistently low or high over time,” he continued.
“If it turns out your indoor radon levels exceed the recommended safety threshold, we advise installation of an active radon reduction system by a certified radon mitigation professional.”
An active radon reduction system is a permanently installed pipe-and-fan system that places a direct vacuum on the soil beneath the house’s foundation, constantly reducing the amount of radon under the foundation that can penetrate into the living space of the home.
To learn more about short term (and long term) testing and to purchase either or both test kits homeowners can visit RadonAware.ca where kits can be purchased online.
Note: Short and long term radon tests include delivery of confidential lab test results.
Story originated at The Nelson Daily
