Radon Gas

Radon is a radioactive gas produced when uranium in soil, rock, and water breaks down. It seeps into buildings through cracks in foundations, gaps around pipes, crawl spaces, and sometimes well water. You cannot see, smell, or taste it, so testing is the only way to know your level. Radon levels vary widely, even between neighboring houses.

The health risk is lung cancer from breathing radon's radioactive particles over many years. According to the EPA, radon is the number one cause of lung cancer among non-smokers and the second leading cause of lung cancer overall. Smokers exposed to radon face a much higher combined risk. The EPA recommends fixing a home if the radon level is 4 picocuries per liter (pCi/L) or higher.

Radon comes up in legal disputes in a few ways:

• Real estate disclosure. Many states require sellers to disclose known radon test results or hazards, and buyers who discover high radon after closing sometimes sue over nondisclosure.
• Landlord and tenant claims over unsafe housing conditions.
• Faulty testing or mitigation, where a contractor's work failed or test results were mishandled.
• Environmental exposure claims, similar to other cases over pollutants that increase cancer risk.

Proving that radon caused a specific cancer is difficult, so most radon disputes involve property and contract claims rather than injury lawsuits. Test kits are inexpensive. For related environmental exposure cases, see the ethylene oxide cancer lawsuit and the mesothelioma and asbestos page. This page is general information, not medical advice.