Buying in low risk Radon affected area (New build)

Troy_af

Hello.

Currently I have an offer accepted on a property and have had the results back for environmental searches. The radon section states the following - "The property is in an area where elevated radon levels are expected to be found in 1-3% of properties."

Having looked at the radon maps it looks as though half of the town are in the 1% to 3% band, so its definitely not uncommon. The property is roughly 2 years old on a new development. I am wondering whether or not radon is something that developers would be expected to have considered when deciding to build? Also my next question is do new builds these days usually come with radon protection built in?

I am just looking for a second opinion on what to do in this situation, before I phone the solicitors and maybe try asking the developers.

Thank you.

babyblade41

I've lived in a radon area for over 50 years.. no worries about it 

user1977

Check the planning papers - will have come up there if it was at all relevant. 

Snookie12cat

Only 1-3% of houses will be affected, so the one you are buying might not be. If you move in, you can do a 3 month test and if it is found to have elevated levels you can buy a positive pressure fan which will resolve the problem. They are about £1k if going for a loft one.

GDB2222

babyblade41 said:

I've lived in a radon area for over 50 years.. no worries about it 

Not everyone gets ill from Radon. Likewise, not everyone who crosses the road gets run over, but it’s still worth looking both ways. 

1100 deaths a year in this country  from Radon, apparently. That’s comparable to the number of deaths on the roads.

https://www.bmj.com/content/338/bmj.a3110

babyblade41

GDB2222 said:

babyblade41 said:

I've lived in a radon area for over 50 years.. no worries about it 

Not everyone gets ill from Radon. Likewise, not everyone who crosses the road gets run over, but it’s still worth looking both ways. 

1100 deaths a year in this country  from Radon, apparently. That’s comparable to the number of deaths on the roads.

https://www.bmj.com/content/338/bmj.a3110

How many die from road pollution though?... nothing and nowhere is risk free really 

robatwork

GDB2222 said:

babyblade41 said:

I've lived in a radon area for over 50 years.. no worries about it 

Not everyone gets ill from Radon. Likewise, not everyone who crosses the road gets run over, but it’s still worth looking both ways. 

1100 deaths a year in this country  from Radon, apparently. That’s comparable to the number of deaths on the roads.

https://www.bmj.com/content/338/bmj.a3110

Well that's not quite what the report says.

The mean radon concentration in UK homes is 21 becquerels per cubic metre (Bq/m3). Each year around 1100 deaths from lung cancer (3.3% of all deaths from lung cancer) are related to radon in the home. Over 85% of these arise from radon concentrations below 100 Bq/m3 and most are caused jointly by radon and active smoking.

Although a bit woolly, it's apparent the number of deaths *from Radon* is substantially fewer than 1100.

JGB1955

Troy_af said:

Hello.

Having looked at the radon maps it looks as though half of the town are in the 1% to 3% band, so its definitely not uncommon. 

1 - 3% certainly looks like uncommon to me.  As would 49%. I think you're overthinking things....

GDB2222

robatwork said:

GDB2222 said:

babyblade41 said:

I've lived in a radon area for over 50 years.. no worries about it 

Not everyone gets ill from Radon. Likewise, not everyone who crosses the road gets run over, but it’s still worth looking both ways. 

1100 deaths a year in this country  from Radon, apparently. That’s comparable to the number of deaths on the roads.

https://www.bmj.com/content/338/bmj.a3110

Well that's not quite what the report says.

The mean radon concentration in UK homes is 21 becquerels per cubic metre (Bq/m3). Each year around 1100 deaths from lung cancer (3.3% of all deaths from lung cancer) are related to radon in the home. Over 85% of these arise from radon concentrations below 100 Bq/m3 and most are caused jointly by radon and active smoking.

Although a bit woolly, it's apparent the number of deaths *from Radon* is substantially fewer than 1100.

I did read that, and maybe I was wrong to shortcut it. The point is that Radon is not a tiny problem. 

Ramouth

I seem to recall that living in a property with radon at the action level of 200bq is equivalent to smoking around 5 cigarettes a day.  Not ideal but not instantly deadly.  We had ours tested and got a reading of 300.  We will need to do something about this soonish but are not panicking.

bouicca21

When I had a similar (but higher) warning I took a good look at the soil in the garden. I knew there was a band of chalk somewhere but whether it was under my block of flats or several miles away was not at all clear. The boundaries on geological maps are imprecise.

The soil was clearly neutral to slightly acid and equally clearly was London clay.  I took the risk, did a test after I moved in and radon levels turned out to be negligible.