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What a difference a week can make.

Last week I had never heard of the "picoCurie per
liter" measurement, as in 2.7 pCi/L.

Tom and I were too excited thinking about the beautiful
Colonial Cape Cod home just north of West Chester on which we had signed the preliminary
papers.

But after receiving a cram course in home radon levels, the
week ended with our sad decision to pull out of the buyer’s agreement.

This is not going to be one of my light, chatty pieces, or
one that makes you smile. But I’m hoping it will motivate you to ask some
questions, do some research on your own and perhaps to even take action.

Very simply, radon is a colorless, odorless, tasteless
radioactive gas formed during the breakdown of uranium in soil, rock, and
water.

Radon is found everywhere on earth, even in small quantities
in the air we breathe. But because it is denser than air, contamination occurs
when radon from these sources
accumulates in confined areas such as home basements or attics.

In October
1988,  President Reagan signed the
Indoor Radon Abatement Act which set guidelines to make indoor air as free from
radon as the air outside. With the Radon Act 51, Congress set the natural
outdoor level of radon gas (0.4
pCi/L) as target radon levels for indoor air. But because two-thirds of all
homes in the U.S. already exceeded this level, the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency lowered  its
standards and recommendations for the nation, targetting an acceptable indoor radon
level of  4.0pCi/L.

Unfortunately it
has taken over twenty years of continued research for the World Health
Organization to now ammend those figures and  recommend that all countries adopt an even lower acceptable
indoor level of 2.7 pCi/L.

So how does this  effect us living in the Brandywine
Valley?

According to a
2008 study done by the  Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the highest radon
concentrations in the United States are found not only in Iowa but in the
Appalachian Mountain areas in southeastern Pennsylvania.

In October  2009,  Exton’s John Lauber, a realtor with RE/MAX  wrote: “We have not been told to change
our current level of 4.0 [to 2.7pCi/L] in Pennsylvania yet. I do understand
that it will be changed to align with WHO.”

The EPA and WHO
have listed the three leading causes of lung cancer as smoking, radon and
second-hand smoke.  In 2005, U.S.
Surgeon General Richard Carmona noted that more than 20,000 Americans die of radon-related
lung cancer each year.

So Tom ordered radon
testing on our dream house prior to the final sale. The results- the basement
level tested at  9.9 pCi/L and the
first floor dining room, 5.7pCi/L.

We have been told
that even higher levels have been found in the area and are easily mitigated by
a fan located in the basement and vented to the upper exterior of the
home through PVC piping. But because
the high radon levels in this house were constantly supported by an open French
drain in the basement and an outside well, we opted out.

While Tom and I believe we made the right decision, many of
you with more experience in the matter will say we backed out of the deal
needlessly.

A dream deferred?

I don’t know. But hopefully we’ll all be able to breathe a
lot easier and healthier.