A home inspection is meant to verify if a home is safe or unsafe to habitat. Deadly Radon gas is not as black and white as that. When a short-term radon test is conducted for a home inspection it is normally a 48-hour test. This means the results of your test are a snapshot of the radon in your home over that 48 hour time period. A snapshot of radon levels is not enough, though, because radon levels change constantly.
Keep in mind that radon is a radioactive gas; you cannot smell it and it’s invisible like the air we breathe. It can kill, but it won’t do it all at once, it kills over time. So if a short-term radon test shows no risk for radon but a long-term test can show there are actually high levels of radon in your home, you still have time to make a difference and protect the health of you and your family. This is the beauty of long-term radon testing, and the tragedy of conducting short-term testing at the time you move in. (EPA)
The EPA suggest checking radon levels at least every two years as radon flow can increase over a timescale longer than one calendar year. This is to say, just as radon levels fluctuate within a calendar year, they also fluctuate as years pass. Your home may have had acceptable levels of radon for the past year, but that could change, and having an active long-term radon testing unit would alert you to any such change.
It takes years for radon to have an effect, which usually manifests in the form of cancer. But all it might take to fight off radon is improved airflow–in some cases you could literally blow away this deadly gas. First, though, you need to see it, and to see it you need a long-term radon detector. There is no reason to get a radon test that’s only 48 hours when radon can fluctuate dramatically week to week.
90 day and over radon testers are similar to a smoke detector and are much cheaper than a 48 hour test that requires an inspector. they are widely available and last for years.
“What is Radon?” United States Environmental Protection Agency. https://iaq.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/211432748-What-is-Radon-
“Reducing Radon In Your Home” Kansas State University. National Radon Program Services. http://sosradon.org/reducing-radon-in-your-home#impacts
-Stay safe and be informed, love ABC Home Inspections LLC