Home & Yard Handbook

Greener Living = Healthier Indoor Air

If you want to live a more sustainable life and protect your family from cancer, you may want to learn more about one of the home’s most dangerous pollutants—radon. Radon is a cancercausing natural radioactive gas that you can’t see, smell or taste. It’s the leading cause of lung cancer among nonsmokers and claims about 20,000 lives every year.

Although lung cancer can be treated, the survival rate is one of the lowest for those with cancer. Fortunately, many of the causes of lung cancer can be prevented—and this is especially true for radon.

The Office of the Surgeon General has issued a health advisory warning Americans about the risk from breathing radon in indoor air. Americans are urged to test their homes to find out how much radon they might be breathing.

Radon comes from the natural (radioactive) breakdown of uranium in soil, rock and water and gets into the air you breathe. Radon can be found all over the U.S. It can get into any type of building—homes, offices and schools—and can climb to high levels if it’s trapped indoors.

For most Americans, the greatest exposure to radon is in their homes, whether those homes are old or new. Any home, any type, any location can have a radon problem. All homes need to be tested unless the building is a high-rise above the third floor. If your home has not been tested, now is a good time to take the test. This will help protect your family’s health and it’s easy to do.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recommends homes be fixed if the radon level is 4 picocuries per liter of air (4pCi/L) or above. While testing can be easy and inexpensive, millions of Americans still need to have their first home radon test to protect their family.

You can test your home yourself or hire a professional. Reliable testing devices are available by phone or mail order and can be purchased in hardware and home improvement stores.

Fixing a radon problem is easy too—and doesn’t have to be costly. Radon reduction systems can lower radon to an acceptable level. Even very high levels can be reduced to a safer level.

“It’s inexpensive to build a new home with radon-resistant features. A better home will be both greeener for the planet and healthier for your family,” said Fuad Reveiz, a member of the National Association of Home Builders.

For help in identifying radon companies, call your state radon office or visit www.epa.gov/iaq/whereyoulive.html. For more information, call 1-800-SOS-RADON (1-800-767-7236) or visit www.epa.gov/radon.

Ways to adjust driving to conserve fuel
Aggressive driving is much less energy efficient than normal driving, and speeding consumes more fuel over long distances. The reason for this lies in the engine; the engine works harder when accelerating or speeding, and therefore requires more fuel. To save fuel, accelerate slowly instead of slamming on the gas pedal, and brake easily.