Yes, various parts of the country do indeed get radon building up in the basement as a result of the radioactive decay of uranium (umm, U to radium, radium to radon maybe?) naturally present in the soil.
Yes, it\’s easily dealt with by simply pumping it out into the atmosphere…..ie, diluting it.
Radon is measured in Becquerels per cubic metre of air. The average radon level in homes across the UK is 20 Bq per cubic metre.
The HPA recommends that householders should contact their local authority if they experience radon levels with a reading over 200Bq per cubic metre.
The important bit about this is that we\’ve now got a useful measure of how much radioactivity is something we might worry about and how much we might not.
For example, if some Greenpeacer starts wibbling about 40Bq per cubic metre then we can reject it as wibble. However, if some FoE\’er starts shouting about 400Bq then we should at least take their concerns seriously.
Useful rule of thumb really…..