Radon kits

[buzz]

The County is offering low cost radon test kits.
Mail a check for  $7  with your return address to:
 
Cook County Dept. of Environmental Control
69 w. Washington St. 
Suite 1900
Chicago, Il.  60602

[berwynson]

This would be worth the money, I'd say. Do you suppose they ship to out of state addresses? In the name of Public Safety, of course, their declared purpose for existing.     berwynson

[J'sMom]

This is definitely worth it. We tested our place (south side of Berwyn) during the buying process five years ago and found high levels of radon. Had a mitigation system installed, paid for by the sellers.

[buzz]

I think they said " for Cook County residents".

[berwynson]

This is definitely worth it. We tested our place (south side of Berwyn) during the buying process five years ago and found high levels of radon. Had a mitigation system installed, paid for by the sellers.

How in the world does a mitigation system work? Did you test for Radon level after it was installed?

Radon is an insidious gas, in that it cannot combine with any other element (inert, or "noble gas"), thus trapping it by combining with something else is not possible. If one knows the exact source, some stonework, or masonry which can be isolated, and possibly removed, that gets rid of it, of course. If the masonry of the whole structure contains Radon-emitting materials, it's real difficult.

Long-term breathing of Radon is known to cause lung cancer. It is emitted in quantity by Radium, which was used for many decades to coat watch & clock dials, as the Radon emitted glows in the dark. A small chunk of Radium (pretty rare, and very expensive) sitting in the darkness, with no air drafts present, has a tiny "cloud" of Radon gas hovering around above it's surface; if you blow on it, it wafts away, no glow then, and presently it begins to return again, ghastly-looking sight, for sure! One of the damndest things I've ever seen!   berwynson

[buzz]

It's expensive and requires monitoring.   
   
http://www.epa.gov/radon/pubs/consguid.html#reductiontech

[MRS. NORTHSIDER]

The County is offering low cost radon test kits.
Mail a check for  $7  with your return address to:
 
Cook County Dept. of Environmental Control
69 w. Washington St. 
Suite 1900
Chicago, Il.  60602

I tested our home with one that I received through Cook County about 15 years ago.  I had to go to the courthouse at Maywood for a ticket and saw something about it there and sent for it.  Our levels were very low and the testing was cheap and easy. 

[dualref]

Radon usually appears where there is radioactive material in the ground. If I lived in Nevada I sure as heck would have my home tested.

[berwynson]

Radon usually appears where there is radioactive material in the ground. If I lived in Nevada I sure as heck would have my home tested.

Exactly. The radioactive materials are almost always bound up in rock of one kind or another. Thus, rock materials used for building purposes can often emit Radon. Though rock buildings are not too common, rock is pulverized to powder in order to make Portland cement, the stuff of all concrete construction, mortar-constructed masonry work, and often the masonry itself emits Radon.

If you're referring to the atomic bomb testing in Nevada, rest assured it was done on strictly government-access only land, an immense area known as the Nevada Test Site, near Mercury, NV. I don't imagine any rock material is gotten from that area for commercial use. One of the most extensive natural deposits of radioactive ores actually exists in New Mexico. The town of Grants grew up as a mining town during WW II, where Uranium was mined for the bomb program. The area is extensively Indian Reservation, and many Native Americans suffered the consequences of working in  the Uranium mines there, for the Government. There are today, billboards along I-40 proclaiming that Native Americans are entitled to compensation if working the mines produced health problems.....those of course were usually cancer, and early death.

Rather ironic, and surely a shame, that Native Americans, badly in need of jobs, suffered the worst consequences of the new Nuclear Industry which sprang up following the War.   berwynson