November Begins National Lung Cancer Awareness Month

As we enter November, National Lung Cancer Awareness Month, Team Woods wants to highlight the importance of checking your home’s radon levels. The effect of radon in your home is unforgiving. Radon is the leading cause of lung cancer in nonsmokers, and if you are a smoker, that only increases your chances to get lung cancer.

Radon is a gas created from the radioactive breakdown of uranium in the soil, rock, or water and is released into the air. Your home is one of the areas that you will be the most impacted by since that is where you spend most of your time.

What’s frightening about radon is that it is an invisible, odorless, and tasteless gas. Unfortunately, there is no way for you to know how the levels of radon in your home unless you test for it. Radon testing kits are inexpensive and user-friendly, so there’s no excuse not to have your home tested! Another option is to radon mitigation, which is a system that reduces the levels of radon in your home. This option is more expensive but will protect the health of you and all loved ones that spend time in your home.

Radon is measured in picocuries per liter (pCi). After testing for radon, if the levels reach or above 4.0 pCi, immediate action is necessary. At these high levels of radon exposure, this will only increase your risks to developing lung cancer. There is no such thing as a safe level of radon; any exposure will only increase the chances of lung cancer. Radon is essentially a daily risk that we are exposed to. To keep these levels in check protect your home, Team Woods urges all homeowners to test for radon twice a year.

For more information about radon and the increased risk of lung cancer, click here.