Posted on 04/09/2015 6:21:05 AM PDT by Citizen Zed
Levels of radon, an invisible, odorless radioactive gas, have been rising measurably in Pennsylvania since the controversial practice of fracking started there, researchers reported Thursday.
The study cannot directly link fracking with the raised radon levels. But whatever is going on, residents need to be aware of the rising levels of the gas and take action to get it out of their homes, the researchers say.
Radon is the second-leading cause of lung cancer in the U.S., killing an estimated 21,000 people a year. It occurs naturally in many types of rocks, and many people who have bought or sold a home will be familiar with the radon test on the basement or ground floor.
Pennsylvania has notoriously high levels of radon, and Joan Casey of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and colleagues set out to assess all the different sources of radon on Pennsylvania homes over time.
They got state data from every Pennsylvania county, looking at radon readings between 1987 and 2013. This covered nearly 2 million tests done in 800,000 buildings.
"We evaluated associations of radon concentrations with geology, water source, building characteristics, season, weather, community socioeconomic status, community type and unconventional natural gas development measures based on drilled and producing wells."
"The geologic rock layer on which the building sat was strongly associated with radon concentration," they added. That's been known certain types of rock are more likely to contain the radioactive elements that break down into radon gas.
But they also noticed a trend over time. Depending on where in the homes the radon was measured, radon levels started inching up in either 2004 or 2006.
And the trend was linked with just how much unconventional drilling was going on. This includes horizontal mines and hydraulic fracturing or fracking.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnbc.com ...
Radon
Well there’s a word I haven’t heard in a while.
Radon is always heavy in the PA/MD area. Our old house in rural MD was so bad it had to have a fan installed to blow it out.
Then why even bring it up?
How about this--I can't say definitively that Harry Reid is a paedophile, but you never know.
PA had high Radon levels before fracking.
Pennsylvania has ALWAYS had a higher-than-average level of radon in homes. The problem was DISCOVERED here.
It’s the ROCKS, stupid!!
“Fracking Link? High Radon Levels Found in 300K Pennsylvania Homes”
Liberal Link? High Radon Levels Found in 300K Pennsylvania Homes
Fixed it.
Yea well show us the documentation on the levels B4 fracking began.....
Most radon tests are below the threshold of the detection equipment. Liberals think any detected radiation is dangerous but they never talk to those treated by radioactive iodine for prostate cancer.
I guess the earthquake thing isn’t working anymore.
I hate to point this out, but obviously no one thinks about this.
Prior to the 1980s...insulation of homes was marginal or 2-star at best. But the environmentalists came and said that it’d be really helpful to turbo-charge our home insulation and get the better windows/doors. So when we heated or cooled....it stayed in.
Well...not only did the heat stay in...but the radon stayed in as well. Unless you have some exhaust fan rigged up and regularly air out the heavily insulated home...it’ll continue to build up. We can go to any area where radon was somewhat common before fracking came along, and then look for areas without any fracking (there are plenty of these areas)....and find heavier concentrations of radon.
This is NOT rocket science. If you do something....there’s a consequence, and it’s not all a good thing.
Before fracking, smallpox killed millions of children.
Why does the left want to stop fracking and kill millions of children with smallpox?
See lefties I can use loony logic too.
More FUD and attempts to mislead from leftist media in yet another attempt to derail an American success story. They are SO predictable.
My current house in southern NH had radon air and water in excess of the recommendations. We split the cost of the remediation equipment with the sellers. It was about five grand for both. Our water level was extremely high. The house was built in 1972. The previous owners had lived there for 25 years. Radon is prevalent around here. It is very common in NH granite bedrock.
The air systems are installed in almost every new construction house. It is just a four inch PVC pipe that goes down under the concrete floor in the basement. It then has to go up to the roof line and away from Windows at its termination. You also want the pipe to be on the prevailing down wind side of the house. They install on inline fan that runs 24/7.
The water bubbler is a much more expensive piece of equipment. It runs about $3500.
Are we just looking for excuses to ban fracking?
They certainly did. The historic high levels might be more closely related to the mining and older forms of drilling predominant there for a hell of a long time.
You’ve probably just nailed it.
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