Beware of radon in the home

You and your family could try holding your breath to protect against radioactive radon or you could test your home for this odorless, colorless gas.

Radon is created from natural deposits of uranium and radium in the soil. As of September 2008, 88 homes in Carson City had been tested, and 26 of them " about 30 percent " were over the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) action level for radon. This compares to 22 percent of the homes tested statewide that were in excess of this action level.

It's difficult to predict which homes will have radon problems. Radon may be found in any home " regardless of its age, quality or upkeep " and even neighboring homes can have vastly different radon levels.

Radon is impossible to see, smell or taste. It seeps into a home from the surrounding soil and could be accumulating to unsafe levels in your home. When it enters a home, it decays into radioactive particles that get trapped in the lungs. It is the second " leading cause of lung cancer in the United States after smoking. Smokers with radon in their home are at an especially high risk for radon " induced lung cancer. Radon " caused lung cancer kills more people than second " hand smoke, drunken driving, drowning or home fires. It is a Class A carcinogen. This class includes things such as arsenic, asbestos and benzene.

Radon is easy and inexpensive to detect. The only way to know if your home has a radon problem is to test it. Special test kits are needed to identify radon accumulation in a home. Testing takes two to four days with a simple kit. You can purchase the kit from a hardware store or pick one up for free (until March) at your local University of Nevada Cooperative Extension (UNCE) office. Place the test kit in the lowest living area of the house, with the doors and windows shut. The best testing season for this area of Nevada is between Oct. 1 and April 1.

Radon problems are preventable and fixable. There are systems to remove radon from a house by drawing it out beneath the home and exhausting it outside. These systems have the added benefit of reducing molds and mildews. A reduction system consists of a pipe connected to the soil, a collection system to draw out the radon, a barrier to maintain a negative pressure in the collection system and a continuously operating fan to discharge the gas safely outdoors. Radon solutions can cost from $500 to $5,000, with an average cost of $1,200.

January is National Radon Action month. Protect you and your family. Test for radon today. For more information, go to www.unce.unr.edu/radon or the EPA radon Web site, www.epa.gov/radon. Or call the UNCE Radon Hot line at 1-888-RADON10 (1-888-723-6610).

For information, contact me, 775-887-2252 or skellyj@unce.unr.edu, your local University of Nevada Cooperative Extension office or at www.unce.unr.edu. "Ask a Master Gardener" at mastergardeners@unce.unr.edu

- JoAnne Skelly is the Carson City/Storey County Extension educator for University of Nevada Cooperative Extension.