检查家里的空气中是否有高水平的氡气是一个非常明智的主意。加拿大卫生部已确定，氡是仅次于吸烟的第二大导致肺癌的原因，估计占该国确诊病例的16%。
A high reading may come, not from having a uranium source under your basement floor or behind your foundation walls, but rather high levels of radon gas in your water supply.
Radon gas occurs naturally as uranium in the soil breaks down, and can seep into your home undetected as it is colourless, odourless and tasteless; it can also dissolve in well water entering your home with the water you consume.
虽然氡气的概念还没有成为设计师和建筑商的常识，但一些建筑规范已经要求至少安装一个土壤气体膜，以及一个可以在完成的房屋中氡气含量很高时启动的减少氡气的烟囱。各处都存在一定水平的氡气，在房屋建造前不可能确定其浓度是否高，因为需要在密封的房屋中积累氡气来显示读数。
There are radon hot spots all across the country where it is quite prevalent in homes, but whether a specific home will have a high reading is still pretty much hit and miss - you may have it and your next door neighbour may have none. The presence of radon in water is equally random, and levels may differ drastically from wells even in very close proximity. Below is a map developed by the CBC using data fromHealth Canada outlining the highest risk areas across Canada.
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Map of high risk areas for radon gas contamination © CBC
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Testing for radon in the air usually involves a sensor that needs to be left in place for several months; or putting an electronic tester and monitoring system, water can be tested more quickly with a properly collected sample - you can findwater testing kits here for radon. You may have next to no radon infiltration through the soil, but still have high readings in your house due to contaminated well water.
Radon is a heavy gas, and if it weren't invisible you could see it in action - and even pour it out of a cup the way you can with dry ice. In a room with stagnant air it will collect at the floor level, but it is easily stirred up by heating and ventilation equipment, the stack effect (air convection), and even the movement of people through a room.
If a glass of water with high levels of radon was left undisturbed, there wouldn't be much gas escaping until you break the surface tension of the water. It is the spraying action of showers and aerators on faucets that allows the gas to escape from the water, but it is probably also a good idea torepair leaking faucets - stopping drips is an easy fix!
Aeration to remove radon from water:
Traditionally, radon would be aerated with special tanks that are vented to the outside. This requires space within your mechanical room; it also allows the gas into your house before it is dealt with. So there is a greater risk of leaks, also of the gas re-entering the home through windows or by proximity to heating and ventilation intakes.
There are a few products currently available on the market that removes radon from the water directly at the well head. And it looks like this - click it for more information and to get pricing:
A pipe with an aeration section is inserted from top to bottom in the well. A steady source of air is introduced into this aeration tube effectively lifting water from the bottom of the well to create an aerated flow of water onto the top of the water level of the well itself. The result is that the injected air will have stripped previously trapped gasses out of the water in the quite pressurized conditions at the top of the well.
There are two main benefits we find with this type of install; wells are usually far enough from a home that there is little risk of escaping radon leaking into the house, and it requires no allocation of space for equipment in the mechanical room. As there is already power at the well head for the pump, no additional power lines would need to be run to the well, so there is no added hassle or cost difference whether installation happens at the time of construction or a retrofit at a later date. An added benefit is that this system also removes methane, sulfur (the rotten egg smell) and iron.
System cost:
Normally, when you get to the part about cost, everyone's shoulders will slump a little as the 'preferred product' is usually more expensive. This is a rare case of it being the opposite - typical aerating systems to remove radon from water can range from $5000 - $8,000 installed, while this system's range is more in the $3,000 - $5,000. Watch the video below for greater detail on how these types of systems work.
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