EVALUATION OF INDOOR RADON TESTS FOR BUYERS OF HOMES

The US-EPA recommends that when buying a home, have the home tested for indoor radon by a qualified person. Often a small container of activated charcoal is used to collect radon decay products, since the charcoal test can be competed in less than 7 days. When a home is tested by an occupant for health concerns, often a small container of film is used to record alpha-particle tracks on the film produced by radon decay products. In our study of over 1000 homes, we found that at the 70% confidence level, when trying to determine the average indoor radon concentration over an entire year, an uncertainty of +/- 90% had to be applied to an 3-day-exposure activated charcoal measurement and an uncertainty of +/- 30% had to be applied to a 3-month-exposure alpha-track measurement.