Radon

Cooking With Radon?

Granite_Counter_Radon_Emmision

Have you heard rumors that fancy stone countertops give off radon?
Dunwrryaboudit, as Tony Soprano often said.
The short answer?
“Neither imported nor domestic granite products require radiation testing,” the EPA says.
Still, the story has made the rounds enough that we recently got a sales flyer for a new radon test kit for granite! That’s from the “if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em” school of fear marketing. Agents, brokers, home inspectors and real estate professionals need to know better. (Testing for radon is outside the scope of a home inspection in Kentucky. KRS 198B.706(1)(b) (“the home inspection report does not address environmental hazards, which shall be listed with specificity by the board.”) But everyone gets questions about granite and radon now. Ignorance is not bliss; knowledge is better.)
As usual, the countertop scare sprang from a grain of truth. Rumors mushroomed from a simple fact – about granite.
Stone in general (which is most of the fancy countertop market) is no more problem indoors than outdoors. Stone – including quartz and marble – as a group is no more dangerous than the clay in bricks, the slate in pool tables, the materials in tiles or concrete. They’re all quarried, like granite, but not hazards.
The urban legend got started because granite, also used in some countertops, is among the below grade rock and soil types where radon surface emissions are higher. (Granite is a naturally formed igneous rock.) There’s no news there. There’s also no news in the fact that granite, like other rock formations, can contain radium or emit radiation.
“However, at this time EPA believes that the existing data is insufficient to conclude that the types of granite commonly used in countertops are significantly increasing indoor radon levels,” the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently reported. EPA is the prime source of radon research and information. It was the EPA that set the “action standard” (4 pCi/L) for indoor radon testing and mitigation. In other words, the EPA is the last word on this.
Furthermore, “at this time, a generally accepted radiation testing protocol for countertops does not exist,” the EPA announcement noted. Don’t be fooled.
“EPA will continue to monitor and analyze the evolving research on radiation and granite countertops and will update its recommendations as appropriate. There are currently no regulations concerning granite countertops radon gas or radiation emissions,” the EPA web posting added.
This dust-up does not change the EPA’s long-standing basic radon policy, however: Every home should be tested for radon. Period. Agents, inspectors and brokers who say anything else better have one (currently unknown) terrific excuse, now that the predictable radon lung cancer lawsuits are warming up.
In Kentucky, radon measurement specialists certified by the National Radon Safety Board (NRSB) or the National Environmental Health Association (NEHA) are the only professionals qualified to do radon testing, says the EPA and the Kentucky Department for Public Health. (The author of this article is NRSB certified.)
“The U.S. Surgeon General and EPA strongly recommend that all homes be tested for radon,” the EPA wrote in its granite countertop posting. “At EPA’s action level of 4 pCi/L, a smoker’s risk of lung cancer is about five times the risk of dying in an auto accident, and if you’ve never smoked equal to the risk of dying in an auto accident.”
For the full text of the announcement, go to “www.epa.gov/radon.” You might also look over the short “Position Statement: Granite Countertops and Radon Gas,” Science and Technical Committee of the American Association of Radon Scientists and Technologists (AARST), August 4, 2008 (a pdf file) (“Direct measurements in a building of the radon emission from a material, such as granite, is not a reliable indicator of radon concentrations that will be in the air you breathe….Testing the air you breathe is the best method to determine your risk from radon.”).
The bottom line? Be wise. Get homes tested for radon. But test the indoor air, not the building materials.

Radon Certification

Why now is the time to get your radon certification.

There are loads of great reasons to get radon certified in Kentucky.
Start with pumping up average ticket prices by about one-third. Call that around $40,000 in extra take-home, on average. Throw in a real public service. Saving kids from radon-induced lung cancer. Priceless. Then remember many folks moving here expect radon testing. Avoid losing their business. And attract all the other clients who know anything about public health.
There’s one more major reason. Kentucky’s new radon certification law is likely to make it lots more complicated, and expensive, to get certified starting next year.
Inspectors certified before then are favorites to get “grandfathered” when Kentucky’s certification rule comes down next year.
The new Kentucky law kicks in on January 1, 2013, if everything goes as planned.
The new Kentucky radon certification law provides that “No person or business shall conduct radon measurement, mitigation, or laboratory analysis in this Commonwealth after January 1, 2013 without the appropriate certification pursuant to KRS 211.9101 to 211.9135. ‘
The law, KRS 211.9107 became effective June 8, 2011. Professional Learning Institute became the first Kentucky source for classes soon after. Until then, inspectors had to trek to Columbus or Raleigh for the classes and test.
Only individuals are certified under the law. Businesses may engage in radon measurement, mitigation, or laboratory analysis if the owner or an employee is certified as a radon measurement or mitigation contractor, or radon laboratory, as applicable. KRS 211.9119.
The Cabinet for Health and Family Services (CHFS) is named “the regulatory agency for the control of radon in the Commonwealth of Kentucky.” KRS 211.9135. CHFS is required to put out regulations for certification, renewal, and research. Its powers to enforce include the power to subpoena and to levy fines. All fees, fines and other moneys in the program are deposited into a radon mitigation and control fund, established by KRS 211.9133.
Of course, beginning in 1992, with KRS 211.855-857, Kentucky law has required certification of radon measurement and mitigation. (The new law, KRS 211.9101-9135 repealed the former KRS 211.855 to 211.857.) The problem was that no regulations to actually certify anyone ever got put into effect. As a result, CHFS accepted National Radon Safety Board (NRSB) and NEHA (National Environmental Health Association) certification instead.
Certifications from those two groups both are likely to be “grandfathered” this time, if CHFS actually gets certification regulations up and running this time. To be safe, and to help home inspectors get certified “come what may,” PLI began offering radon certification, and the national exam, July 2011.
To try to make sure certification actually, really happens this time, a new “Kentucky Radon Program Advisory Committee” is created under the law. KRS 211.9103. The committee has met four times now. The Radon Advisory Committee (aka RAP) does not have one home inspector as a member, essentially because the Kentucky Board of Home Inspectors (KBHI) fell asleep at the switch. It appears the KBHI did not even know the law was being considered by the General Assembly. Yet home inspectors almost certainly provide more radon information to the home buying public than any other single group.
Initial radon measurement certification will cost $250, with annual renewals. Certification will require a bond, E&O insurance, liability insurance, and a quality control plan. Renewal is annual, with 8 CEs per year. CHFS will approve all devices for radon measurement. KRS 211.9109.
It is basically the same for radon mitigation, except the E&O insurance requirement is left out for them. KRS 211.9111.
Interestingly, all certified persons are required to report to CHFS “the discovery of any apparent noncompliance with any provision of KRS 211.9101 to 9135.” KRS 211.9131.

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