When we think about air pollution, we often imagine smoky skies or city smog, but indoor air can be just as hazardous, if not more so. One invisible culprit that poses a serious health threat is radon, a naturally occurring radioactive gas. If you’ve never heard of it or considered its impact, you’re not alone. Understanding radon’s role in indoor air quality is critical to maintaining a healthy living environment.
What Is Radon?
Radon is a colourless, tasteless, and odourless gas that forms from the natural breakdown of uranium in soil, rock, and groundwater. Outdoors, it typically disperses quickly and doesn’t pose much of a risk. However, indoors, where ventilation is limited, radon can accumulate to dangerous levels, especially in basements and lower floors of buildings.
You can’t see or smell radon, which makes it particularly dangerous. It’s not something you’ll notice right away, but long-term exposure can lead to very real health consequences.
How Does Radon Enter Your Home?
Radon enters buildings through cracks in foundations, gaps around pipes, unfinished floors, and other openings that connect your home to the ground. Since it originates from the soil beneath your house, even the most well-sealed homes can be at risk. Poor ventilation and airtight construction, while good for energy efficiency, can increase radon concentration indoors.
Why Should You Care?
The biggest reason to take radon seriously is its link to lung cancer. According to Health Canada and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer, after smoking. It’s estimated that radon exposure is responsible for thousands of lung cancer deaths each year.
When you breathe in radon gas, radioactive particles can get trapped in your lungs. Over time, these particles can damage lung tissue and lead to cancer. What’s especially alarming is that radon exposure doesn’t produce symptoms until it’s too late, making regular testing essential.
What Can You Do? HVAC to the rescue.
HVAC Strategies to Help Reduce Radon Levels
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Improve Ventilation
- Why it helps: Increasing the air exchange rate dilutes radon concentrations in the indoor air.
- How to do it: Use your HVAC system’s ventilation capabilities to bring in more fresh outdoor air (mechanical ventilation).
- Best for: Homes with slightly elevated radon levels.
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Install an HRV or ERV System
- Heat Recovery Ventilators (HRVs) and Energy Recovery Ventilators (ERVs) exchange stale indoor air with fresh outdoor air.
- They’re instrumental in energy-efficient, airtight homes with limited natural ventilation.
- Bonus: They help control humidity and improve overall indoor air quality too.
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Pressurize the Basement
- If radon enters from the ground, slightly pressurizing lower levels can help keep the gas out.
- HVAC systems can sometimes be adjusted to send more conditioned air to the basement to maintain higher pressure than the soil below.
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Seal and Balance Ductwork
- Leaky or unbalanced ducts can cause pressure imbalances that draw radon into the home.
- A properly sealed and balanced system prevents negative pressure zones where radon entry points exist in lower levels.
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Integrate with Radon Mitigation Systems
- A sub-slab depressurization system is the gold standard for radon mitigation. While HVAC doesn’t replace it, some setups allow integration:
- HRVs/ERVs and HVAC fans can work together to maintain positive indoor pressure or increase dilution.
- Smart HVAC systems can even be programmed to run fans longer when radon levels spike (with a radon detector integrated).
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Use HEPA Filters or Air Cleaners (for general air quality)
- While this doesn’t remove radon gas, using high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters helps reduce radon decay product particles that attach to dust and are also harmful when inhaled.
Final Thoughts
Radon may be invisible, but the risk it poses is very real. By understanding the connection between radon and indoor air quality, and by taking simple preventive steps, you can ensure the air in your home is safe and healthy. Testing is easy and peace of mind is priceless.