Oh fuck. Did you ever tried crowdfundraising? For those
reasons People are willing to help. Me included

Oh my god. That’s so dangerous, I am so, so sorry. What about starting a YouCaring, so People could donate to help alleviate the cost of moving?

jeez, that sucks. We have radon issues here, too. Not nearly that bad, but we have to keep a few windows in the basement cracked to let it leak out which, in the winter, is really not ideal for the ol' heating bill. If you have a basement, I'd recommend venting your windows and stuff like this: https://airthings.com/ca-en/diy-rad.....igation-giude/

Probably not the most ideal solution, but definitely cheaper

My issue is that... my apartment IS the basement. \o/

I hear that. I actually live in the basement in this place, so I'm the one at the most risk, but we're lucky to have a place that has little windows in the basement. If you don't have any windows down there and making modifications like in the link I provided aren't an option, it really sounds like crowdsourcing the money might be the best bet.

you need to install at least a fan to replace the air in the romm, radon don't come out the soil at an high rate, but as it's an heavy gaz it accumulate easily, so you need to suck out air at the floor level not at the ceiling like it's done to remove moist

if it's an apartment isnt it the landlords job to fix the issue?

They give good advice, I'll add a two flow venting for the "living space" in order to have positive pressure in the house.
Don't loose money on "special radon" fan, it's uselless a regular fan will do the work, don't trust the "leak danger" of the commercial.
Use glued PVC pipes if you need to connect multiple pipe, and put the fan in the basement, the "leak" can only occur in the polluted space, just don't put the fan in the living space.
Good fan can be buy for cheap like this one : https://www.aliexpress.com/item/E-E.....781585854.html

Don't talk about what you don't know kthxbai

Instead of just saying stop talking, please correct what you find wrong, otherwise it's useless, and i'll be glad to improve my knowledge.

First off, fixing radon with hvac wastes tons of energy. To halve the levels, you need to double the air changes per hour. Twelve to six, double ach. Six to three, double ach again. You’re now spending four times as much on gas and power to heat or cool that air.

Second, a fan designed for radon is welded shut so there’s no chance of a leak in its case. Important, because the seam is downstream and under positive pressure. A normal vent fan might be fine, but it might not be and now you’re blowing radon-laden air back into the living space. Radon fans are also rated to run continuously unattended for a decade or more before replacement. A cheap vent fan won’t be.

Get my drift?

I got it thanks !

OMG you have got to get out there! I am so sorry to hear about all of your losses :(

I would suggest Crowdfunding or checking where you live. If you purchased the house and they knew there was Radon there could be a lawsuit but that might be hard. I think there are organizations or groups that will help people who can't afford it.
I'm not sure if house insurance can help with that either..... Radon is a nasty thing so sorry you are having that!

This was my thought. SURELY there is some sort of recourse for this especially with how long the issues have been going on. Wow. I hope you’re able to get his worked out VERY soon!

There probably is nothing they can do but have the problem fixed themselves. Whoever owned it before them probably didn't know about the radon, it's one of those things that isn't required to be tested for, and usually isn't tested for unless someone decides to on their own accord. It's crappy to have to deal with, but unfortunately there isn't always someone else to blame sometimes things just happen. Instead of blaming others, people need to figure out ways to cope with the obstacles that life throws at them. I too have lived in homes with radon in the past, we didn't try to sue anyone, we just had radon systems installed. They're not the cheapest but not as bad as you'd think and usually can be financed. Part of owning a home, sometimes things get expensive.

We were the first owners of the house, and it didn't have it when it was built. It's something that can happen over time, unfortunately.
Seems I'm not able to work out a fix, because I'm not going to be allowed to fix my father's house without his permission, and he's already decided not to. I also can't move for various reasons. Joy.

Get out. There has to be other solutions to money out there, maybe some organizations that help or payment plans to work out with a bank or company. Just get out.

* hug * I wish you well-being in any of your decisions.

:< holy shit...

I didn't even know that was a thing

I was completly unaware of this thing
geez, I'm sorry for your mother and..fuck crowfunding a home change will require forever :/

Thanks for reminding me that. I really should do something myself. I'm actually from city where people first started to research that stuff.
It would be historically interesting but the city glows like a fuckin' radioactive Christmas tree and there are also quite a few problems with radon.

Where does THAT much radon even come from? With how dangerous it is, sounds like you could sue the landlord since it caused some pretty extensive damage... and death. The entire apartment complex should get closed down ASAP till he fixes his shit, and he's gonna get quite a sizable fee if it's his fault.

But if it's something like your fridge that's leaking then yeeeaaah, no go.

It's a house. No landlord, no anything aside from us.

Then you could "talk" with the previous owner since that's defo a hidden vice.

uh, they don't use radon in fridges.

That’s Freon you’re thinking of, and they don’t use CFC gasses all that much anymore. R-134a is an HFC gas that doesn’t contribute to ozone depletion, and is what’s commonly used in all refrigeration units from cars ACs to freezers.

well, _ I _ know that. :)

freon is a hydrocarbone with fluor replacing one hydrogene atom, if I recall right.

aside that, R-134a does deplete ozone eventually, once it reaches the stratosphere and is taken apart by hard UV rays. which is why they replaced it with R1234, which costs a fortune, up to 600€ for a 10kg can, and depletes to hydrocyanic acid should the vehicle catch fire...

418 becquerels isn’textraordinary. It’s high, yes, but I’ve seen (and fixed) homes with 4.5 KBq in air.

Heck, the granite countertops in the kitchen measure 150Bq per square inch with my Inspector. Lay on top of that for a few hours and freak some people out with numbers they don’t understand.

How long have you been living in this house?

I've been living here since I was 5 years old. I'm 31.

Just watched this video to see what you were talking about.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96K4Lke0H8Q
OMG!
Ventalate as best you can which im sure youve done already. I wish there was a way out of there even if it means get a used rv or trailer to live in. Anythings better than being poisoned every day from radon gas.

I just hope something good happens on your end soon. *hugs*

Yeah I wish I could.
We don't have money to fix the issue, and now dad thinks I'm making it all up so we move. I don't know wtf is wrong with him right now.
I even offered to set up the gofundme to help pay for the mitigation, but he's somehow convinced it's all some sort of scam.

I just want to leave, but I don't even make enough per month to get a place of my own, or a camper, or anything. I'm screwed.

Yeah, crowd source and move out on your own if needed. You can find roommate situations to help defer costs as needed.

where do you live "town, state wise?" Im sure theres college students always looking for roommates. $450 a month is the norm. sometimes its a little lower.
I say gofundme or other crowd funding means is a MUST in order to preserve your health.

Dad apparently has it in his head that this is all just some big scam. He thinks I'm just saying this shit because I want to move. Hell. I even offered to take on full responsibility for payment of the mitigation system.. but he's still refusing to do anything abut it.
Maybe he'll see reason.. I doubt it. He's stubborn.

Your dad thinks Radon is a big scam? Wow......Wtf

Radon mitigation is a massive money scam. Read whatHowlingWolven is saying concerning piping out a hole with a small fan from the lowest level of the house. That will cost three orders of magnitude less money.

Oh my God. D: Can you start a donate page or something like that to get the word out?

As a physicist I can only tell you this: 11.3 pCi/l is equivalent to ~18mSv / year - for comparison:
* a full body CT scan gives you a 10-30 mSv dose ...
* that is around the background radiation on the Kerala coast in india
* a radiation worker is allowed to get 50mSv / year (in most jurisdictions)

So - It is indeed quite high ... and if I could, I would definitely try to move from there.

^this.

Please don't panic, because the stress is likely worse for your health than the radiation you're exposed to right now. But DO look for options to move out when you can.

Wow what idiot left Radon in or under your house???? :/

Have you told your father of this Revelation?

The only cost effective means I can think of is.... eat mushrooms, they help in filtering out toxic substance even radioactive toxins. Another plant that can help is Cannabis (most of us call it Marijuana), this plant has more healing properties then any Western Medicine can provide additional detoxification and their being planted in the surrounding area at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant Red Zone. Yes they too can filter out the radiation too.

But honestly you need to decontaminate your house, find the source of the Radon and clean it up

Was your house area a dumping ground before your house (your currently live in) was built?

Radon comes from the natural decay of uranium in the soil. Many areas in the U.S. have high uranium content in the soil relatively speaking which lead to lots of radon in basements which is one reason that basements are no longer common in modern construction in the U.S.

Oh 0wo

That explains new houses don't have basements

Is their anyway of cleaning out the soil of the Decaying Uranium Cragger?

no. it's so finely distributed you'd have to remove the whole vicinity and still won't change a thing.

Well....... S*** :/

Then DarkIceWolf needs to move out as soon as possible or eat plants that's detoxify radioactive substance

I doubt the plants work like that. they absorb the stuff while growing, so you'd eat the substances. them absorbing it while you digest sounds more like a marketing lie to me.

Punch a hole in the slab and the side of the house, connect them with a pipe, put in an hp2133 radon fan, seal the shit out of leaks in the floor, and reduce the pressure below the slab to keep the radon (and other soil gas) from being able to enter through the slab.

I hope DarkIceWolf is looking at these comments on ideas we're discussing because the situation he's in is bad that I can only imagine :/

*Prays for him and his father for better health and change of good fortune for them*

First you need to get a follow up test done. Radon levels can fluctuate due to weather. Also if you are a DIYer there is a radon mitigation book available one can buy to do their own radon mitigation. http://www.radon.com/radon_mitigation-book/

This. Do an alphatrack 3 month test at least.

Open basement windows and furnace hot air vents, that’ll help drop your levels.

There is no safe level. Radon at 148 Bq/m3 will still have the potential to hurt you. Radon at 14 Bq/m3 will still have the potential to hurt you. 418 Bq/m3 is high and well over the action level, but I’ve mitgated houses that were well over ten times that.

There are nearly free things you can do. Purple Filtrete filters will filter out the harmful parts, and that will significantly reduce your exposure. Radon’s health risk is only 5% from radon itself, and 95% from its daughters, which are solids that get electrostatically attached to dust.

tl;dr I’m very sorry to hear all of this. Eas and free things that help bring down radon are ensuring your furnace registers in the basement are open, that your furnace has the fresh air intake from outside opened (this damper is surprisingly often closed off), and making sure you’ve got a purple Filtrete 1500 furnace filter installed.

Honestly I've probably been exposed to similarly high levels for the better portion of my life. I've lived here with my parents since I was like 5 years old. This isn't a new problem. I have a feeling it's been going on for many years.

We're getting a consultation with a mitigation team on Thursday. I'll know more by then.

Ask about their method. Ask if they just stick in a big fan, or if they size the system based on diagnostics. Ask them for their NRPP certification. If the answer is "we poke a hole, put in a fan, and pipe it out", "this fan fixes houses of this size, so we don't need to do the diagnostics", and "what is the NRPP?" or any variation thereof, don't give them your money.

This is the best rated company for it in my location. You can check out their site - https://www.ohiobasementauthority.c.....itigation.html

I don't see anything about NRPP certification on there, and coming from Canada's radon mitigation industry, that worries me. Those companies without certification generally don't know what they're doing. Not to bash this company unfairly, but ask questions. Lots of questions.

These links should be a good starting point to help you figure out what questions to ask.

https://www.canada.ca/en/health-can.....ion-sheet.html

http://publications.gc.ca/collectio.....-180-2007E.pdf

owch. good luck!

Oh my god dude! I've never heard of this before, I would definitely vent and purge the house or move! I know money's tough and like many mentioned before people will band together and help you out! This situation is desperate in my eyes, it's not worth risking your and your father's health and on that note I am very sorry to hear for your losses!

Keeping you in my prayers dude

I was sent here from a buddy that thought I might be able to help with some advice - so I'll do my best here.

If you guys are short on money, and have no way to get out of there or at least treat the problem, consider opening a GoFundMe page. I have one open right now for my pooch Manook, who has cancer and I'm doing everything in my power to try and save him. In 2 days I've raised $520, which is a good chunk of change, and allows the burden to be lessened a bit.

People will come and share your post - they'll find ways to come up with money to try and help, or spread the word to someone who can. Having as much loss from this (or at least partially from this - I'm sure it at least hasn't helped), people will most certainly find a way. Have you considered asking friends and family to stay with them for a while, until this is fixed / reduced?

Gofundme is free, and they take a minimal % of your donations - out of 500, I received 482. Consider this as a very real option, as it is an effective one. I hate asking people for help, I have never done it before now, but dire situations like what we're both in call for a helping hand sometimes. For the safety of yourself, as well as your family, please consider opening one up for you guys. Include as many details and pictures as you can (you can update as many times as you need to after the initial post), to give people the fullest picture they can possibly see.

I wish you guys the best, and I hope that this problem will be resolved in a quick and effective manor. Let me know if you have any questions about gofundme or anything of that sort, and I'll do the best I can to help ya out. I know it's making a world of difference for my Manook, I'd love to see it help you and your family out as well.

I'd definitely start a gofundme for more testing, and getting it treated, if possible.

Move into your attic? If memory serves Radon is a dense gas so staying out of the lower portions of your house might help?

Nevermind I'm a derp, I'm thinking of Freon. I'd stand by the suggestions to get a second test done.

We're having a guy come out to the house for a consultation on Thursday. I'll know more then.

WTF, I didn't even know this was a thing O_O

A box fan that will circulate air in the lowest levels of the house is a cheap and effective mitigation solution. Radon is such an overhyped hot mess that mitigation companies want you to spend thousands of dollars “fixing”, when in all honesty your levels are still well below hazardous levels.

Living about 2000’ in elevation exposes you to the same levels of cosmic radiation as that level of Radon, and people in Denver are quite alright.

(Experience: 15 years of handling and awareness education with radiological materials and their physical attributes.)

No, it doesn’t. Everything you said in that statement is incredibly wrong or a troll.

Radon decays to Polonium, which has a half-life of about half a year. The danger arises from the alpha particle radiation when there is an extremely high concentration of material built up in the lungs from years of chronic exposure to very high levels, i.e. an unventilated uranium mine.

You receive more radiation from naturally occurring sources (granite countertops, the sun, eating a banana or nuts, taking an airplane anywhere) than you do from any measurable level of radon in a household. The levels mentioned in the topic post are higher than what’s normal, but not life-threatening to the degree for-profit Radon mitigation services want you to believe.

The public is flagrantly ignorant of what radiation is and is not, but I’ll be hard pressed to educate anyone here when there are 100 panicked idiots for every 1 knowledgeable person bothering to say something.

Yeah but, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/ar.....es/PMC3742230/

I don't know what's going on with this house other than the radon that keeps making animals and humans sick.
House tests clear for everything else.
Still, even if we were to want to sell the house at some point (given, we still wouldn't have the funds.) by law we'd have to get the radon issue fixed anyway.
Otherwise a lawsuit could be filed against us.... Our house has pretty poor ventilation to the outside anyway, aside from opening a window, and that would defeat the purpose of having heat at this point in time.

A small fan (70-100cfm tops likely) near floor level sucking air out and forcing it out a window or air vent (drier, main house vent, etc) may be enough to significantly reduce radon levels.

There would be some increase in heating costs but it would not be much.

How does getting high remove radiation? And weed can give psychosis, so probably not a good idea :/ He should find a cheap apartment somewhere to get away from those gases.

No they don’t. Please leave, you’re not helping the conversation in a constructive manner.

Thats lethal, you need to get out as soon as possible!

No, it’s not. It’s several orders of magnitude below even approaching lethal. Radon by it’s very physical nature can never accumulate to a lethal level, because it decays so rapidly that it reaches equilibrium in a matter of months in any volume of air.

So you're saying there is nothing to worry about health-concern wise? If so, why are everyone in this journal comment section making such a big hustle. If its not dangerous, there is no reason to get anything fixed...

Because the public at large is extremely ignorant of what radiation as a physical phenomenon actually is, and what levels of it are or are not dangerous. The amount discussed is lower than what you would receive if you had a computer desk made of granite, ate 3-4 bananas a day, or simply lived in Denver, Colorado. It’s very low.

There is naturally occurring radiation around us all the time, and it’s a little higher or lower depending on where you live in the world. It’s not like there’s no radon in most homes, it’s just a naturally occurring element that floats around in the atmosphere, generated by the long decay chains of Uranium and Thorium in the soil, which make up a few parts per billion or trillion here and there. You can’t escape it or make it go away completely, but since Radon is a heavy gas, it will sink to the lowest level of an area and sit on the floor. Again, we are talking circa 100 parts per trillion at a very high concentration (0.00000001%). Having good circulation in the whole volume of air in your home will spread that out and bring it down a few orders of magnitude to be below standard background radiation.

Have you physically made him go to this website of the lab you sent the sample to? Are there any HVAC or specialized people in your area that you can call to do a live test in front of him? I'm not exactly sure how these things work but good god, you poor thing you need out or something, ASAP. My sincerest apologies and sympathies for all this :(

I think dad was just upset, and stressed out.
He needed time to cool down and I knew that. I talked to him again after a few hours and he seemed to realize that something did need to be done.
We're still expecting consultation for mitigation on thursday.

Okay good, that's great. I'm glad he came down and realized the seriousness of the situation. Just try to hang on out there, okay? <3 Best of luck forreal

Good news is once you DO get it mitigated you can have the place sealed against it. That's what my parents did after they tested and came up clear. I think it has to be re-done every so often but I think my dad actually did it himself? I'm not 100% sure but basically it was just like, a sealant coating they did on all the concrete before dad finished the basement.

In the meantime some of the links here have info on reducing the amount yourself while you wait to get everything else in line: https://www.odh.ohio.gov/odhprogram.....treachfaq.aspx

wow that is High.. one thing some do here in Canada who live in high radon areas, is install either an air-exchange unit, or a positive-pressure ventilation fan to the basement. ( Radon is a gas that seeps into houses through the basement because of decaying high uranium content in the soil. Get a Radon detector, like this one: ( https://www.amazon.com/Safety-Siren...../dp/B011ACOMK0 ) and plug it in to measure your Pci levels. a family member had levels of 6 to 7 Pci in their basement, and they installed a simple 50 dollar wall fan that blew fresh air in from the outside to the basement, ( effectively creating a slight positive atmosphere pressure to stop the seepage of radon) then their levels on the meter dropped to 2 ~3 Pci.

Open the windows if possible... winter rn, so that's probably a no go, like I think you said earlier.

Go for the high end Flitrete filter for the air system... and I think there's a lead paint of some sort that locks out the radon fumes?

Not pretending to be an expert, but thankfully it looks like a couple of those have commented already. Hopefully you can at least reduce it to a lower level. Not lethal, but it still ain't no joke.

Furnace filters don't filter Radon. Radon cannot be filtered as it is a noble gas. Only it's daughters can be filtered, and the only way to get that is to go through a remediation company, which dad has already said is a no-go because he's being a butt.

Lead paint also causes cancer, and is extremely dangerous.

I suggested the filters only based on what a few others who seemed to know more about it said above, and I read that detail about the daughters, which is basically what you just said here. I guess I really wasn't suggesting anything new there.

I also am quite well aware that lead dust can be dangerous. Lead paint in good/new condition does not, to my knowledge, lead to those issues. Granted, I've been working in paint departments only the last few years, not since the 70's. So as I implied, I'm certain I don't know everything. I texted a handyman I knew and that's what he suggested in a quick reply. In all honesty, I'd think Drylok would perform the same/a similar function, though over time, while Drylok itself is less dangerous than lead paint, a quick google search has shown me that yeah, fumes will start leaking through the cracks.

The situation is unfortunate, and I only threw up quick suggestions I thought might help. It appears, alas, they did not. Sorry about that. Hope you manage to keep it under control.