My Colorado plans are slowly fading in the west!

treeguy64

treeguy64

Hari Om, y'all!
Location
Austin, TX.
Radon gas is the culprit, here. Janet and I don't want to leave Austin's ozone laden air for Colorado's radon ridden soil. Three out of four homes throughout Colorado have dangerous radon gas levels. Mitigation systems exist, but they must be checked regularly, and are not cheap.

A good friend of mine came down with lymphoma, and she had no risk factors except that she lived in Colorado. She is ok, now, after spending around six months in hospital with a crack team of doctors treating her. Her BIL is an MD. He headed up the team.

The worst US State for radon gas is Iowa! Man! Radon gas is the #2 cause of lung cancer, and can cause it in non-smokers! Man, again!

I guess it's back to the drawing board for Janet and I.
 

AZ Jim said:
If it's not one thing, it's a dozen others. This ole world is getting tired.
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You are so right, AJ! Janet and I, only minutes ago, said the same thing. Every town we look at has a fatal flaw, once we do deep research. We're trying to get back to being positive on Colorado, but it's tough. So many online articles and surveys list Colorado as one of the healthiest places to live. Then, you read about 3/4 of all households in Colorado have high levels of radon gas. Then, you read that high levels of radon gas increase your chances of getting cancer by 65%. Who do you believe? What surveys do you put your faith into? It's driving me crazy, in truth.
 
I wouldn't worry about it.

Approx. 21,000 people die from radon exposure every year and over 37,000 people die in automobile crashes in a country with 329 million people.

Live the life you dream about while you are still young enough to enjoy it.
 
We had a mitigation system installed in the house we are in now, even though it checked as being just below the acceptable level.

You are correct. They aren't cheap, but how do you put a price tag on peace of mind?
 
Liberty said:
Hey, Gary...there's a guy that eats the pumice stone! Can't be that bad for you...lol.
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Funny, when we first bought our land back in '99, we noticed some local tribesmen along side the road, selling arrowheads and stuff.
They had this tub of water with rocks in it.....floating
Wife and I couldn't resist. Bought one for $2.50
Discovered back at our property the place was rife with 'floating rocks'...pumice stones
 
Northeastern PA, where I live, has numerous coal fields, and we have high radon numbers. According to the EPA, 40% of our homes have radon emissions way over the acceptable limit. But unlike Colorado, we don't do anything about it. In the back of my mind, I heard we had a problem with radon, I didn't know how bad it was. I had to google it to find out- we're one of the worst. Yet, I don't know of anyone, who monitors it or does anything about it. It's not a selling point-this house has radon protection. If it weren't for this thread, I don't think anyone around here is concerned.
 
I live in Southeastern Pennsylvania and it is considered to be a high saturation area of Radon Gas. Here is a picture of my monitoring system. Very easy for a layman, like me, to use and read. When (IF) the red fluid rises above the red arrow, we are to call the radon company immediately and they will come out and do a free analysis. If any repairs inside are necessary, we pay for them, naturally.

The fan, which is very quiet, runs in cycles. If the Radon level begins to creep up, the fan kicks on and sucks it to the outside through a PVC pipe. On the outside of the house, instead of having a pipe sticking out, the company disguised the pipe by running it through a downspout, so it looks very natural to the house.

The company comes by every 3 years and puts out collection jars in my basement to take air samples. It's a jar with something that looks like a wick inside. They take the jars back to the lab and their chemist analyzes the 'wicks' or whatever they are called. A few days later, we get a printout of the results of each jar and where it was placed at the time of the collection. This costs us $39.00 every 3 years and the price is guaranteed not to go up.

One thing that I learned and thought was important is that when or, if we go to sell the house, we can list our Radon Gas level on the prospectus of the house. We were told that once we got the original testing done that if it goes above the acceptable level, we would have to report that on our "disclosure sheet" when or if we would decide to sell the house. I thought that was interesting. The man also told us that when people learn that they have to report the number if it is above the acceptable limit, some will cancel the inspection because they do not want to risk having to report the number if they would sell.

Mit I.JPG
 
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Aunt Bea said:
I wouldn't worry about it.

Approx. 21,000 people die from radon exposure every year and over 37,000 people die in automobile crashes in a country with 329 million people.

Live the life you dream about while you are still young enough to enjoy it.
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It’s not that a person shouldn’t worry about it, however, I would think that limiting one’s risks to things that are dangerous to our health and it’s something that we can control or fix, then we need to do whatever to limit that risk, if we wish to achieve our objective.

In treeguy’s situation, he doesn’t have to give up on his dream because he does have some options to limit the risks connected to living out his dream. I’m not saying that we should avoid every situation that poses a risk, but the situations that poses a risk to health, serious injury or death, then, yes, the risks should be considered and minimized if possible.

There are risk takers in this world. Evil Knievel was a huge risk taker by choice. He was also paid to take those risks. Would I consider repeating his actions? Absolutely not. Just like going through a door and knowing that there is a bad guy on the other side that is armed. You have to minimize your risk by wearing the appropriate protection gear and being armed. It doesn’t guarantee that you will exit unharmed, but it does minimize the risk.
 
Gary O' said:
Funny, when we first bought our land back in '99, we noticed some local tribesmen along side the road, selling arrowheads and stuff.
They had this tub of water with rocks in it.....floating
Wife and I couldn't resist. Bought one for $2.50
Discovered back at our property the place was rife with 'floating rocks'...pumice stones
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Too too funny! Love it!
 
treeguy64 said:
You are so right, AJ! Janet and I, only minutes ago, said the same thing. Every town we look at has a fatal flaw, once we do deep research. We're trying to get back to being positive on Colorado, but it's tough. So many online articles and surveys list Colorado as one of the healthiest places to live. Then, you read about 3/4 of all households in Colorado have high levels of radon gas. Then, you read that high levels of radon gas increase your chances of getting cancer by 65%. Who do you believe? What surveys do you put your faith into? It's driving me crazy, in truth.
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We have a very good friend that lives in Evergreen, Co., he gets his radon levels measured every year. We also talked about the rock/slipping issues...because some places are built on the dry side of the mountain and then the rain patterns change and the ground erodes. In Colorado Springs, they lost quite a few houses.

There are probably good building lots and not so good ones in those zones, like most anywhere else. We talked about folks living for years and years and then a geologist knocks on their door and shows them a crack and says they better move. Fire dangers are an issue. He can't have any trees within such and such a distance of his house do to fire hazard.

What they have a lot of is "hail" and brutal winter cold of course. Every place has pro's and con's huh.

As far as what are the "healthiest" places to live or not live...think a lot of that is about just "good marketing"...lol.
 
911 said:
It’s not that a person shouldn’t worry about it, however, I would think that limiting one’s risks to things that are dangerous to our health and it’s something that we can control or fix, then we need to do whatever to limit that risk, if we wish to achieve our objective.

In treeguy’s situation, he doesn’t have to give up on his dream because he does have some options to limit the risks connected to living out his dream. I’m not saying that we should avoid every situation that poses a risk, but the situations that poses a risk to health, serious injury or death, then, yes, the risks should be considered and minimized if possible.

There are risk takers in this world. Evil Knievel was a huge risk taker by choice. He was also paid to take those risks. Would I consider repeating his actions? Absolutely not. Just like going through a door and knowing that there is a bad guy on the other side that is armed. You have to minimize your risk by wearing the appropriate protection gear and being armed. It doesn’t guarantee that you will exit unharmed, but it does minimize the risk.
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I understand what you are saying and if I had small children living in my home I might take some action to reduce the risks posed by exposure to radon.

In my case, as a single 65-year old, I'm willing to assume the risk. I'm simply balancing my perception of the risk vs my own life expectancy of 86.5 years.

I guess what I'm saying is that IMO I'm too old to worry about it but like so many things in life we all need to do what we feel is best for our own situation.
 
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