Radon The Silent Killer - Heres what you Need to Know! 

Toby you’re the silent killer.

Radon fans should NOT be in the basement, when passive systems are installed around here there is an outlet installed near the pipe in the ATTIC where potentially needed fan can be plugged in. Thus the suction pipe never has POSITIVE pressure while passing through a livable space. With a retrofit system, this is why the fan is always located OUTSIDE. As a Home Inspector in Ohio, I'm asked to test about 2/3 of the properties I inspect. I commonly see 10-20 pCi/l readings, my highest was 254.2 pCi/l. Big HEAD'S UP: I also test houses with operating mitigation systems, of those I tested last year, 40% were above 4.0 pCi/l WITH AN OPERATING SYSTEM! Maintenance and repairs can't be neglected.

I've had an Airthings meter in my older Virginia house for about a year now. Nobody mentioned radon when I moved in almost 10 years ago. I was averaging around 4-6 pCi/L initially, which dropped to 2-4 after I opened the crawl space vents. I almost bought a home test kit, but settled on the meter since it was a one-time cost that let's me re-measure different rooms, during different seasons, and after various mitigation steps like opening windows and sealing gaps.

I realize Texas is considered a "low risk area", but ever since that event, have you considered installing, or at least offering, a passive radon system as a standard part of the "package", whether slab on grade or crawlspace?

Radon research for the guidelines is actually very sketchy. The looked at coal miners who got cancer, calculated the amount of radon exposure, drew a straight line, and came up with the 4.0 level. Is the same as saying alcoholics have exposure to red wine, so we shouldn’t have more than 1 ounce per week. True relationship is like a J curve, just like a little red wine is fine or even good. EPA almost dropped this requirement in 2016. Saw a lecture on RU-vid saying Radon is likely just a bogey man and levels below 12(?) are not worth looking at scientifically

Mitigating radon gas in homes is a very controversial subject. The level determined to require mitigating was derived by the EPA using a no threshold linear model. Many scientists do not agree with the EPA’s model. Mitigation is a large industry so tail may be wagging the dog. Radon at very high levels, like can be found in some mines, is certainly dangerous.

Back in January of 2019, I came across a similar discussion to this. I bought a monitor and discovered that my basement office was measuring 12 picocuries/liter. My house is basically prehistoric. Rubble stone foundation with lime grout. The slab could only loosely be called a monolithic slab. I was fortunate to have an abandoned coal bin under the slab as it was. A good volume of air to draw from. I opted to install my fan in the cellar (common practice in Canada). I had read plenty of stories of frozen/frosted vents in winter (worse time of year for radon due to stack effect). And non-working, outta-site, outta-mind attic fans. Logistically, getting the pipe through the sill or foundation would have been tough. I did have an abandoned chimney though. My installation is simple, 18” of 4” pvc from the slab to the fan, 18” more to the chimney. In the chimney I used triple wall for the vent. I can easily monitor its function and the fan should last forever out of the elements. If I ever have to sell the place, I can relocate the fan to the top of the chimney where it’s legal but not practical to monitor. Since the chimney is surrounded by a warm house, theres natural convection that would help draft anything that may leak… at the end of the day, I achieved a three year average of 1.1 picocuries/liter down from 12.

I saw this episode last year and got the Air Things View Plus. My Radon levels on my build house were over 20. So glad I checked! Thanks, Matt!

3:35 I just learned that the "hockey puck" was actually a piece of cr-39 bullet proof plastic. The alpha and beta particles would actually make tiny little holes that are then analyzed under a microscope. 🤯

Valuable education video and communication tool to raise public awareness and save lives. A “big” thanks to you, Matt, and your team for making this video possible - priceless!

Another benefit I saw with an active radon system in my house was lower moisture levels in the basement. It draws air through and out the drain tile in the basement. Keeps my humidity levels below 50 all year round. Don't need a dehumidifier anymore.

When doing home inspections I'm my area Radon is always a hot topic. People are worried more about radon and radon in well water than anything elce.4 Picl is the recommend limit for radon in most areas but does vary. Basements and other factors make a huge diffence.

Moved several times in the last 6 years, my realtor made sure we knew about Radon danger and mitigation systems, as well as testing after installation. Hats off to knowledgeable people.

Have 2 airthings in my house. And here (Norway) is considered a low radon area BUT my readings is often 3 times the limit in my basement. The living spaces is mostly under but sometimes over

I have the airwave plus. I think it's worth the extra money. I think it's interesting the CO2 goes into yellow when I'm doing cardio.

EPA set the radon risk level at 4.0 pCi per liter on an arbitrary level based on what it seemed the general population of American home owners could afford to spend on radon mitigation systems, not based on health risk. EPA still doesn’t have a clue about the risk from a scientific health impact approach. But EPA self perpetuating regulations are based on the fear they can conjure up in the public eye. This delegation of authority to a “science” based agency keeps Congress washing their hands of the decisions EPA makes. Congress hides behind them, and EPA goes on unchecked, scaring the uneducated into giving their misplaced trust that keeps EPA funded.

Interesting how he does not also show the map of lung cancer incidence in the US. Because what you find is that lung cancer is highest in the areas with the lowest levels of radon. The Colorado plateau has the highest radon levels in the country. But, it also has the LOWEST lung cancer incidence. Actually that area has the highest levels of all radiation exposure from all sources. And, the lowest levels of cancer of all types. Yes, some exposure to radiation is good for your body. In fact our bodies are designed to need radiation as we are able to synthesize Vitamin D from solar radiation. There is evidence that low levels of radiation exposure can boost the immune system and keep cells healthy. But, that science doesn't support the narrative that fuels fear and profits.

See Caoumin P. Cahill's RU-vid series on the myths of Radon. Matt is a great builder, love his channel but he's not a physicist and knows nothing about the properties of radon

Show me a scientific peer reviewed journal linking radon to "death" please.

When we bought our Indianapolis 1913 home a few years ago it did not have a radon system in it. Last summer we grabbed one of the Airthings sensors you show in the video and saw it read about 12-14. OMG. Sealing off our crawlspaces, sealing basement walls, and installing the active system dropped us to 1-3 regularly. We're very happy with the results and feel a lot better about the home and our health. We definitely do have levels about 0.5-1 in the summers and upwards 2-3 in the winter.

My mother, stepfather, and brother all died from various forms of cancer within a 10 year period and I believe Radon had a lot to do with it. Mother had storm windows added many years earlier and the house was virtually never opened up. Combined with a full basement in a sloped hillside and an incredible humidity problem in the basement requiring a permanent always-on dehumidifier we should have known. My brother socialized with them a lot so he spent a lot of time over there. After mother died he discovered he had cancer so took time off of work and filled his days repairing and updating her house. I was out of state so it didn't affect me. When he went to sell the house a buyer was required to do a radon test and POW! "Really bad" was how he described it to me. A passive system was installed in the basement under the slab. Retest showed little improvement. A second trench was dug and an outside fan added and now the tests passed. We didn't talk about it much because he knew as well as I that despite the different cancers they probably all got it the same way. He died just a couple of years later. If it's a rocky area, if you have any ground penetration beyond normal surface footings, if you have a ground related humidity problem inside - GET TESTED!

Matt... While this is good information, most trustworthy RU-vidrs follow an important code of ethics of never doing what this video does, taking money from a product that you're promoting when you're making a video that is supposed to be giving unbiased advice. You do that constantly, often not even telling us it was a promoted product video until the very end. You should be able to honestly say that no one is paying you to talk about this or to promote any specific products and so we can trust your advice on this topic, and then you would also be able to tell us what products you would actually recommend and not just for companies that are paying you for promotion.

We love RU-vid and your guidelines and your regulations. We’re just trying to help find out them facts

We're in a zone in central WA that is not known to have Radon issues. Tested in June last year and we had 30+ pCi/l in areas of the building. Testing this winter levels rose to 80+ pCi/l. Going to be a big system to mitigate 40k sqft building.

Just ordered the Airthings meter. I can also test my shop and family members' houses, too with it. The test kit is a pain and a one time deal.

Great Video. I bought a meter to actively measure the Radon in my basement. It hovered around 4 most of the time, but an adjacent space was as high as 9. I put in my own system to remove it and got it down to 0.5-1.0. DIY is a great option if you're willing to learn the basics to ensure your system is built properly and delivering the results needed.

Ha, once again another video where I learn about something I had no idea. I live in Tasmania, Australia and Radon levels in Australia are considered low. However I have never come across Radon as a thing in all my time as a builder. Very interesting.

The term "silent killer" is overused - you could include carbon monoxide gas, electricity, high blood pressure, a rifle bullet, obesity, asbestos dust, slurry gas (H2S), and the full English breakfast! - although all of them can be detected just like radon can.

Bought an Air Things Wave Plus. Found my levels going up to 2.5 in the winter. Installed a radon system, dropped to 1.1 in winter. Spray foamed the entire basement foundation, it dropped down to 0.1-0.3. The Air Things will tell me within 24 hours if my fan stops running as well.

Hey Matt! Just wondering, can you just put in a vapor barrier tarp under a new build foundation? Why not? Would it not stop all radon and vapor from entering house?

It’s a good idea to test but use an independent lab or your state lab not one that makes money from selling you a system.

How about NOT BUILDING ON THE LAND THAT HAS RADON GAS. why hasn’t there been an alarm created to pick up the radon like the smoke alarms with carbon monoxide detectors?

1. Would An ERV reduce the radon? 2. Would poly sheet under slab reduce the radon?

Is there a sound medical recommendation for natural ocurring radon levels in houses, or is this just fear monguering commercial?

I rent a townhouse in Concord,Ca. A area where Radon is basically nothing. I bought a VOC/Radon air monitor for work. Brought it in my townhouse to update the firmware. The sensor detects RADON after letting it run. I have 12 pCi/l. Been here a few years and so upset. All places need to be check!

Low risk doesn't mean no risk.

Hi Matt, I live in the UK and I have never heard of this problem, as far as I know Radon is not a problem. I have seen pipes at dumpsites and they are often lit at the top but that is for another gas that can accumulate and cause an explosion that is caused by the build-up of rotting material. I have just done a search and found a map of the UK and from the info; my area is considered a very low area with less than one percent of radon gas per KM. this map and information comes from the government so I have sent off for one of the tests to find out for myself. If I find out that, I am not, in this low area, I will be taking action to correct this and I will also be letting my neighbours know as well

I have an Airthing monitor running in my home here in Canada since late November. So far, the average reading is just above 100Bq/m3 with some individual spikes as much as 170bq/m3. Canada's guidelines are for a maximum of 200Bq/m3 (5.4pCi/L) , whereas in Europe its only 100 Bq/m3(2.7pCi/L). This is in the middle of our winter heating season I'll probably check the average up until June or July before deciding if I should take any further action.

It’s weird to think that a byproduct from decaying uranium can end up in your house!

I have a airthings monitor for 5 years in my house and im very happy. I also installed a fan to depressurised my underslab

My house was reading 14 , put it a dehumidifier and a few days later it was down to 2.4

So glad homeowners can purchase those fans and guages. Saved $2,000 installing 3in PVC myself.

Oh wow, I was just researching this yesterday. Great timing on this vid man 😆

We put in an active system in when we built in 2020 and still had a reading around 8-9. So once I sealed the sump pit and all of the expansion cracks, it dropped to around 2. You should do this before you finish your basement.

I was JUST asking if my friends who are home owners have ever tested for radon. Because we’re in CA, the answer was no. I’m going to order a test soon.

Radon is not detected in the human body. I just did a Google search and got this, "No medical test is widely available to test the human body for radon exposure." My doctor never tests me for radon exposure, and I have a basement. If I understand correctly, those deaths are "calculated" deaths, not actual deaths. The text at the start of the video shows the statement, "21,000 deaths each year are attributed to lung cancer caused by radon." The weasel word in that sentence is "attributed". They did not say "caused." Somewhere, someone is trying to prove that a death was caused by lung cancer and that lung cancer was caused by radon and not by smoking or asbestos or a predisposition, etc. That is hard to do. Perhaps if you are a miner and do hard work 8 hours a day below ground, you might have to worry about radon. I would like to see some real hard data that shows how lung cancer deaths caused by radon have declined since the implementation of these devices. I do not know of anyone who has died from radon. Car accidents, yes. Heart disease, yes. Cancer caused by smoking, yes. Radon, no.

Makes me wonder my home was built in 1852 dirt floor basement and crawl spaces.

How would you mitigate if you had an encapsulated crawlspace with no slab? That is, just a dirt floor with vapor barrier.

I think bout this all the time.. thanks for sharing? I haven't seen that most recent device they sell, very cool. Thanks for sharing!

Why the side camera moves that much? Was the camera operator drunk? :)

I use a Certainteed product called form-a-drain. Automatically for a few hundred dollars extra, I get a passive radon vent. This can be upgraded if need be to an active system.

Love it but we no longer vent a radon system through a roof it now has to run through the outside of the home. They make it look like an upside down downspout

What kind of radiophobic people install an ACTIVE fan system to get rid of radon gas in the basement?

Great video! I’m a home inspector in CT and I use the Airthings Corentium Pro devices for testing and they are awesome.

A bit odd that that the AprilAire super-deluxe all-in-one View-Plus unit does not monitor for carbon MONOXIDE. Instead monitoring carbon DIOXIDE. WTH!?

People in some areas of Ramsar, a city in northern Iran, receive an annual radiation absorbed dose from background radiation that is up to 260 mSv y(-1), substantially higher than the 20 mSv y(-1) that is permitted for radiation workers. yet they are fine Visitors enter Montana mines filled with radon as a therapy for their ills

Considering that we are at home a lot more now because of COVID - this is a good time to test.

Without having seen the video yet I'm guessing this is an ad sponsored by a company that sells radon mitigation and/or monitoring tech. *Edit* yuppers.

I'm evolved to tolerate radon

Hi from Australia. Didn’t know this was something to be concerned about… then I Googled what the levels were in my area, proceeded to freak out as the levels charted for my area were 9!!! But different unit of measurement. We seem to measure in Bq/m3 where 1 pCi/L is equal to 37 Bq/m3, so we’re doin fine over here. Good luck guys.

In Denmark we put plastic under the concrete that keeps the radon out of the building.

I knew it! I saw that map and looked up how many basements are in Texas! Too coincidental! Same might even be true in Florida!

i dont know why you say everyone in whose in north america should test their house i think everyone should test their house its not just a problem there. Or perhaps you feel that the testing there is just severely lacking?

I really do like your show and sometimes mock your intro Matt, not out of jealousy, but from envy. Show I do want to thank you for the taking some time to bringing this issue to light.

is it good idea to get a builder to spray insulation on the basement floor before pouring a concrete slab on top? for added insulation? or a waste of money?

Also some areas have more radon. It depends on how much uranium is in the bedrock below your house

My house was purchased in the summer, the testing was low. I bought the electronic model and I have days that shoot up to 20. Long-term average 6-7. So yeah, don't trust the one-time test.

Here in NYC the public buildings, public schools, community centers etc are all built with SSDS, sub slab depressurization systems.

I installed a fan for my radon system in the attic of my garage. The builders had an electrical box already in place but never installed a fan. My levels went from 2-4 down to .3-.5 in the winter and .2 avg in the summer.

Buy an AirThings over the one-time use chemical tests. The reason is that while it is more expensive, if you have to remediate, you will need a bunch of tests anyway which will equate to the cost of the permanent, digital monitor. You also get the side benefit of the other things the device monitors (humidity, VOC, etc).

Just installed an airthings radon detector in my basement. First reading was 9, seen it vary from that to 31 (!!!). I've got a professional test scheduled for monday...

I put a passive system in and tested it 25 years later. Found in the basement the level was average of 3.7 Then after installing a fan in the radon exhaust pipe it dropped to an average .9 long term. The levels dropped about 1 for each floor level above ground. Good advice on this video.

active & passive system may be able to help with polution, when I was a kid half of my small town had to be evacuated when a gas station fuel tank ruptured and the vapors were traveling through the ground water and coming up through the soil into peoples homes

There is more to the radon story. Around 1993 I took an original course in radon taught by the developers of the original study for the EPA. According to them. Statistically it is not nearly as problematic for nonsmokers as it is for smokers. The 4.0 number was reportedly a compromise between HUD and the EPA. Radon is in outside air which we breath every day. The original university study recommended taking smokers out of the population study for a more accurate representation of risk without inflating the numbers... the EPA said to leave them in to show higher risk... this is what we ended up with.

Could this guy have said April Aire once more?

Too lazy to look it up but pretty sure radon can't really be an issue without a place for it to collect (a basement) because it's heavy. If you have a normal slab or elevated floor foundation the radon will just blow away like anything else, so you get normal background levels. It's when you have a space for the heavy radon to seep through the ground and collect that you get elevated levels, but it never hurts to test.

Probably a stupid question but can’t you just open the windows in your basement?

Thanks Matt for the video I don't live in a high risk area of Michigan , but that probably has been to my putting it off . Good time to have this reminder when it's 15° in Michigan to know what is actually going on from our below grade basement. Thanks

Active fans in conditioned space is a code violation where I live. It needs to e in unconditioned space.

Is there any way to test the ground for radon before a new build? Or should one just assume radon could occure in the future? Since radon is radioactive, perhaps we could turn it into energy? :D

Here in Phoenix, never heard of a radon system We also very really do basements too. Extreme hard ground and think granite mountains.

Passive systems do not remove radon gas. I am a licensed realtor, home inspector and radon tester. Only an active system works. The problem lately is that realtors talk buyers into waiving home inspections. Worse decision ever. 1 in 15 homes have higher levels of radon (Greater than 4 pi/CL). It's not the radon that kills people; it's the progeny; polonium is radioactive. Radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer in the US. Every real estate transaction should have a home inspection and radon test. If its elevated, test a second time with a different test set before considering remediation.

Would a vapor barrier installed beneath the basement slab be an effective alternative to a passive radon system? Doing a basement in North Texas.

There is a good video here on RU-vid that debunks radon, overhyped

Thanks for the video! After watching this I got the SafetySiren electronic detector and got a reading of 8 pCi/L. I will confirm with test kits but I expect that I will have to install a sub slab system. I tested for radon before I bought my house but this was in the summer and I took Matt’s advice to test in January. I think the energy efficiency measures done to my house would have increased radon levels. In addition to air sealing, I changed from using a natural gas powered boiler and hot water heater that used basement air for combustion to a high efficiency combi boiler that gets combustion air from outside.

Red meat is also classified as carcinogenic to humans.

What about putting something down like Stego Wrap prior to the pour?

Thank you I never knew about this and I just moved to a high risk area

Matt at his best.

Low risk is not no risk. Always test.

The real silent killers are bananas not radon!

Good information, thanks! 🙂👍

thank you for the info I forgot about this, I'm getting a test done.

Isn't there another way during construction outside of laying tubing to prevent radon seepage...I thought there might be a blanket of plastic or something laid on the ground before pouring the cement..any comments?

Aprilaire must not wanna sell those 2 pack test kits. They aren't available on their website. Oh well, guess I'll just get a cheapo from Home Depot.

Great content. Thanks for reminding us about radon. As an alternative can we set up ventilator/erv in basement’s that will run every 20mins? In this way we will always replace the air with fresh outside air

Just received a notice in the mail to do a test. I assume it came from the government although it doesn’t actually say. Wasn’t going to bother but after watching this video I’m seriously reconsidering. I live in Canada by the way.

Probably Northern Texas

Every basement should have at least an all in one detector.

😢 never even heard of radon and i live in the red zone wtf