There’s no Radon in Jacksonville….unless you ask the Florida Department of Health!
Recently I received a distressing email from an old Navy buddy about the medical challenges being battled by one of our former shipmates. Dave had been the picture of health. That guy who always took great care of his body. Worked out regularly even as he turned 50, and never smoked. Dave has been diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer. You like to think that if you don’t smoke you can eliminate lung cancer from the list of things that can get you, but that thought is not completely true. Smoking is the undisputed #1 cause of lung cancer according to the Center for Disease Control. What’s the #1 cause of lung cancer among non-smokers?…..Radon! HomePro Inspections provides radon testing to the Jacksonville area.
Beware Radon
Back in 1994 during my initial home inspection training in Virginia, we were taught that Radon testing was typically done during a home inspection. When I asked real estate agents in Jacksonville about radon testing they said that radon tests aren’t done here because “there’s no radon in Jacksonville”. While agents never called to ask about ask about radon testing, it was common for buyers who were relocating from outside Jacksonville to request a radon test along with their home inspection. After a few hundred of these requests from buyers I was curious to learn more about radon testing and the idea that “there’s no radon in Jacksonville”.
Educate Yourself on the Dangers of Radon
Seemed that the best way to learn about radon in Jacksonville was to become a Florida Licensed Radon Technician by the Florida Department of Health, so that’s what I did ten years ago. As you know from reading the EPA pamphlet “Home Buyers and Sellers Guide to Radon”, radon is measured in picocuries per liter of air, abbreviated pCi/L and that the radon measurements above 4pCi/L require remediation.
What does the Florida Health Department have interesting to say about radon in Jacksonville?
Every radon test result goes into a data base at the Florida Department of Health. From that data base they build radon measurement charts by zip code as well as radon maps. And what does that data revel? The average indoor radon level in Jacksonville is 2.5 pCi/L which is above the national average of 1.3 pCi/L and that depending on your Jacksonville zip code, as many as 5% of the homes in your zip code have radon levels above the safe level. There is no place in Jacksonville where the radon level was measured at zero! None of this should cause you panic other than to be aware that if you were to say to a potential home buyer or renter, that “there is no radon in Jacksonville” that statement is not correct as documented by the EPA and the Florida Department of Health.
Risk to Your Health
What is the health risk of presented by radon exposure in Jacksonville? For a smoker in Jacksonville according to the EPA about 32 people will develop lung cancer versus about 4 people among non-smokers. If asked “is there radon in Jacksonville”, the answer is “yes radon is natural and it’s everywhere”. If asked about radon testing, contact HomePro at (904) 268-8211, we have been doing radon tests in Jacksonville for nearly a decade. HomePro can care to your radon testing needs without causing inconvenience, confusion or panic.
