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Does anyone have Radiation gas in the home?

I was going to buy a house with Radon which is a radioactive gas freed by the natural decay of radioactive substances in concrete. The Swedish government takes the hazard so seriously, that homeowners are offered grants of 50% of the cost of making safer those houses that have radon levels above the action level.

Public Comments

1. Not in the country I stay in ~
2. Put an exhaust system in your basement to get rid of the gas
3. Never had it myself, but studied its effects in college. Radon gas actually seeps out of the ground below the house and does not come from the concrete. It's not deadly but definitely isn't healthy over a long period of time. Radon is generally fixed by putting vents in the ground under the home to vent it off to a distance and then by using a lead based paint on the floors to help deflect some of the radiation. This helps to maintain a safe level of radiation. Don't be scared by the term "safe level" though, you get more radiation exposure by standing out in the sun than you would get from staying in a home with safe levels of Radon. Of course in extreme cases the home has to be abandoned and rebuilt in order to rid it of the Radon gas, but that is extremely rare.
4. Everyone does. Just open your windows, or build a ventilation shaft, or install an air-conditioning unit, so that air can be renewed often especially in colder climates where windows are small and rarely open.
5. When I was a Physics undergrad we'd routinely check on Carbon Daughters, aka Radon, see them everywhere, partcularly since cement gives off carbon as it cures, that was one of the reasons that the biodome failed & needed oxygen pumped in, they forgot to take into account carbon from the cement, Wally Broecker set them straight.