Are you a home owner?

If you are, did you know that according to the NHS Radon is responsible for approximately 3% of all lung cancer deaths and that since 2008 the Health Protection Agency (HPA)* advised that  new homes with provision for ‘full’ radon protective measures should be subject to an appropriate radon test in the first year of occupation.  

This year saw the publication of a report by PHE entitled “Home Owner Knowledge of Radon in Areas where Full Radon Protection is Expected.” Out of the 220 survey responses included in the final analysis “Half of the home owners that completed the survey were aware of radon. Less than 20% of home owners received information that they should carry out a radon test and around a third of the home owners were aware of radon protective measures”.  Furthermore only 10% had carried out a radon test.

This report goes on to set out the improvements that could be made in terms of  information flow to home owners by raising awareness among housing professionals and encouraging improvements to radon information distributed through conveyance documentation and builder’s information packs. To read a copy of the report please go to https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/506122/PHE-CRCE-024.pdf.  The UK Goverment website also has page dedicated to providing householders with information on radon which can be accessed here.

With most Companies actively leading on safety issues why not raise this as a safety topic at your next management meeting.  In fact the HSE website state that

Employers are strongly encouraged to recommend home testing to their employees who live in the radon Affected Area.

If you live in a radon affected area and you wish to undertake radon testing it is really easy to do and can be arranged online at http://www.ukradon.org/services/orderdomestic (and at the time of publishing this post costs £49.80 incl.of vat) although some Local Authorities may offer a free service so worth checking first.

*now Public Health for England