Article in Leaf Chronicle

Frontier Basement Systems recently released a press release regarding the dangers of Radon in an effort to educate the community and increase awareness throughout the area. The Leaf Chronicle picked up the press release and used it as a base for the article which was in the Business section in print and online on August 1st. For more information visit www.leafchronicle.com

The whole story follows:

For the Leaf Chronicle

By: Andy-Lee Fry

"Radon, the silent household killer" may sound like something from a cheesy nuclear-age PSA film, but according to Frontier Basement Systems, it's a very real and present threat to Clarksville residents.

Frontier, foundation repair and radon mitigation specialists serving middle Tennessee, recently issued a press release to give the general public a little more awareness of the possible danger that could be lurking in their homes.

"A lot of the agencies lost funding for their radon advertising, so there's not too much public awareness about the danger," said Laybe Gebers, president of Frontier, in explaining their recent company push in radon awareness.

For the uninitiated, radon is a colorless, odorless radioactive gas usually caused by the breadown of uranium in the soil, rocks, and water. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it is the second-leading cause of lung cancer in the U.S. (smoking being number 1 on the list), responsible for an estimated 20,000 deaths a year.

"It's a health issue. The people is affects most is the little ones and the elderly," said Gebers. "People aren't really aware of how critical that is."

Radon testing kits can be purchased from most neighborhood hardware stores, and homeowners can undertake the testing themselves. The Environmental Protection Agency has advised that action should be taken on tests reading 4Pc/l (picocuries/liter) and above, as this level is considered hazardous.

Though the testing itself can be undertaken by homeowners, once those toxic levels have been detected it is recommended that mitigation be undertaken by professionals due to the relative complexity of the process.

"Basically the radon is coming up out of the soil and going through the rest of the house, so what we have to is provide a safe path for it-we're directing where it's going," Gebers said.

Gebers referred to a recent mitigation undertaken in the Abby Lynn Circle area of Clarksville, where levels of 11.9 Pc/l were reading, though in the northern part of the city picocurie readings in the upper 40s have been registered. Since the property's closest point to the foundation was the basement, equipment was installed in that area of the home.

"We used what's called a sump liner. We come in and we create a draw point with rock all the way around it," said Gebers of the sunken device which is connected to a system of pipes throughout the house, leading to a fan in the crawl space close to the property's roof. "We blick it all off so that we can draw all the air from underneath the basement, and it's fed through the pipes. It runs 24 hours, seven days a week, and it's pulling the air out of it all the time."

Though equipment and techniques vary depending on the property's foundation type, the goal is the same.

"The gas usually takes the path of least resistance, so what we're doing is helping it," said Gebers. "We're vacuuming the radon so to speak."

It seems too that, as environmentally conscious citizens, our attempts to conserve energy in the home have made the radon problem a little more precarious.

"We have this focus on being green and preserving energy where we're sealing everything up top, but leaving the basement the same as it was," Gebers said, adding that these steps are effectively sealing radon into our homes with us. "We're doing these great things with the ecomony and efficiency, but we've kind of created this health problem where we're not diluting the air anymore, so we've go to control where that air's coming from."