Your home is supposed to be your haven. However, many things can make it dangerous inside your home. Gasses, in particular, that build up in the home can lead to many complications down the road. One common and dangerous gas is radon. If you would like to learn more, keep reading.

How Does Radon Get Inside the Home?

Radon is a naturally occurring gas that is created when uranium breaks down in the soil. Normally, the gas would rise and dissipate into the air to cause no damage. However, a home becomes a trap for radon. As the gas rises from the ground, it remains trapped in the house, building up more and more over time.

As with carbon monoxide, radon is odorless and colorless, so you won't realize it's building inside your home until it's too late. You can purchase digital detectors that will help establish your radon baseline. If you believe you already have radon inside your home, you can have it tested. There are fast tests, but the long-term tests provide more data, making it easier to manage the radon.

What Can Radon Exposure Do?

Unfortunately, the symptoms of radon exposure are not immediate. Instead, like cigarettes, the radon slowly destroys cells, particularly those in the lungs. Eventually, this could lead to lung cancer. Regardless of the cause, lung cancer has a low survival rate of about 11 to 15 people living past five years.

In fact, radon is so deadly to your lungs that, along with smoking and secondhand smoke, it is one of the leading causes of lung cancer. Naturally, if you smoke and/or live in a house with secondhand smoke, and you have radon in the home, your chances of developing lung cancer skyrocket.

How Can You Prevent Radon?

Luckily, you can prevent radon from building in your home. To start, get a tester, so you know what levels are normal in your home. It will also alert you when those levels start rising, so you can get your family out of the house and seek help.

However, you can also help prevent the amount of radon that builds up in your home. One of the most effective ways to do this is to seal up any cracks and holes, especially those near the ground or directly on the foundation. You may also want to consider having your crawlspace sealed. Adding circulation with open windows and vents can help too.

Radon is a normal gas, but when it builds up in your home, it can increase the risk of lung cancer, especially if you also smoke. If you believe you have radon, or you want to see how much radon you have, consider a local service that offers residential radon mitigation.