No, Radon Isn’t Plotting With Your Gas Stove

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If the air in your home could talk, what would it reveal about your health five or ten years from now? We pull back the curtain on radon—the silent, odorless gas that seeps up from soil and quietly becomes a leading cause of lung cancer for non-smokers—and we do it without the myths and fearmongering that clutter the internet. Jim and Laura walk through how radon forms from uranium in rock and soil, why its decay products like polonium are the true lung offenders, and what that means for families in regions like Ohio where geology makes elevated levels common.

You’ll hear why you can’t smell radon, why “feeling sick” isn’t a reliable sign, and how smoking multiplies the risk by eight. We get practical about testing: what a 48-hour monitor tells you, why levels swing with weather and seasons, and why winter’s closed windows and frozen ground often push readings higher. We also talk dollars and sense—what mitigation typically costs, what “action level” actually means, and why spending around $1,300 to $1,500 can be one of the best health investments you make for your home.

We fact-check a claim that radon and natural gas combine into something dangerous. Chemistry check: radon is a noble gas and doesn’t react; the rotten egg smell from a leak is mercaptan, which can irritate but doesn’t create a new toxin with radon. Our story archive includes a landmark high-radon case that changed policy and a curious call about “radioactive furniture,” both reminding us how invisible exposures leave very real traces. Along the way, we share simple steps for handling small gas leaks, considering VOCs and formaldehyde after renovations, and turning indoor air from a question mark into a plan.

Ready to act on what you can’t smell? Start with a radon test this winter, fix leaks promptly, and keep your air clear with targeted checks for mold and VOCs when needed. If this conversation helps, follow the show, share it with a friend who’s moving or renovating, and leave a quick rating to help others find trustworthy home health guidance.

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To learn more about Habitation Investigation, the Three-time Winner of the Best Home Inspection Company in the Midwest Plus the Winner of Consumer Choice Award for Columbus Ohio visit Home Inspection Columbus Ohio - Habitation Investigation (homeinspectionsinohio.com)

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Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_02 (00:00):
Hey everybody, this is Jim, and of course Laura's
here with me.

SPEAKER_01 (00:04):
Hello, everybody.

SPEAKER_02 (00:05):
Alright, so radon.
Very popular in Ohio.
Well, I don't know aboutpopular, but very common.
It is a common thing becausejust the geography, the and the
rocks and the zones that areunderneath the soil, they have
uranium in them.
Which over a million years, Idon't I can't remember what the

(00:27):
half-life is of uranium, butover course of time it breaks
down into a couple of differentthings.
One of the things is radon gas,and that's what that breaks down
to causes lung cancer.
But radon is what they measurewhen we do testing.

SPEAKER_01 (00:48):
Right, because that's the easiest way to test
it.

SPEAKER_02 (00:50):
Yeah, the other stuff is uh not not as easy to
test for, but radon breaks downdirectly to those things, so
it's it's directly correlated.
Yes.
So anyway, there's a lot ofmyths about radon.
And we just heard a new one.
We just heard a new one, whichwe'll add to this, but the
typical ones is can I smell it?

(01:12):
And no, it has no odor.
We'll have people call andthey'll what was it, Lord?
They're they're feeling sick,they're having coughs, and
they'll ask us respiratory.
They'll ask us if it could be aradon.

SPEAKER_01 (01:25):
That they had high radon, they haven't gotten a
system put in yet.
No.

SPEAKER_02 (01:30):
No, radon, you will not smell it, it will not cause
lung irritation, it can causelung cancer down the road, but
just m going to a room that hashigh radon, you're not gonna
notice anything.

SPEAKER_01 (01:42):
No, and not even for years.
It's the lower levels for alonger period of time that cause
the most problems in people.
And if you smoke, it makes itworse.

SPEAKER_02 (01:53):
Yes, if you smoke cigarettes and you have high
radon, the addition of smokingincreases uh eight times more
likely to get lung cancer versusthat radon level by itself.
Right.
So, first of all, don't smoke,and then if you have the
ability, get your house testedfor radon and get it mitigated,

(02:14):
which is not super expensive.
It's not cheap.
It average about thirteen,fifteen hundred dollars.

SPEAKER_01 (02:19):
Yeah, I think that's what I've heard recently.

SPEAKER_02 (02:21):
So either way, it's far cheaper than getting lung
cancer and losing losing workbecause you because you can't
well you if you can't work, youlose your livelihood.
That is far more expensive thana radon mitigation system.
So you always get that mitigatedif you have high levels.

SPEAKER_01 (02:36):
Always.

SPEAKER_02 (02:38):
Where at Chair Ohio, it's four point zero or more
picocures per liter, which isjust some very small number of I
guess interactions or breakdownsof the gas, the radioactive
activity.
So anyway, we're heard somethingnew the other day.

SPEAKER_00 (03:01):
Habitation investigation is the way to go
for a home inspection in Ohio.
Trusted licensed home inspectorsfor your needs from radon to
mold to warranty.
For a great home inspection, youreally can't go back.

(03:22):
Visit home inspections inOhio.com.

SPEAKER_02 (03:27):
And Laura, why don't you describe it?
It was on the internet, right?

SPEAKER_01 (03:30):
Well, we did not read it.
We went out to a house where awoman is sick and having issues.
They had a new house that theyhad purchased, and when they
moved in, she smelled somethingoff.
And they bring out the gascompany, and the gas company
finds a couple of gas leaksright in the bedroom where she'd

(03:53):
been staying.

SPEAKER_02 (03:54):
Natural gas?

SPEAKER_01 (03:56):
I think it was natural gas.

SPEAKER_02 (03:57):
Natural gas.
Okay.

SPEAKER_01 (03:59):
So somehow the husband decided to do research
and found something online thatsaid that radon and natural gas
interact together to make peoplesick and cause whatever he
couldn't explain it to me.
He he said he'd read it on theinternet.

(04:20):
But the problem with that isthat radon is what's called a
noble gas, which means that itdoes not interact with anything.
So, like nitrogen is a noblegas.
That's why they use it to cleanout refrigerant lines when
they're doing HVAC systems,because anything that comes in
after that won't react.

SPEAKER_02 (04:39):
Yeah, because I think everybody knows if you mix
ammonia and bleach, you're gonnamake chlorine gas, and that is a
bad thing that is bad around.
But you can like nitrogen, youcan blow that into a system and
it's not gonna interact withanything, create anything new.
Right.
So radon is a noble gas, and forthose people who still think it

(05:01):
is a made-up substance, just toscrew real estate deals or or to
sell systems, it's it's on theperiodic table of elements.

SPEAKER_01 (05:11):
Has been on the periodic table of elements for a
very long time.

SPEAKER_02 (05:14):
It's it's about halfway down on the right size.
It's it's um atomic symbol isRN.
Yes.
So it it is there, it's beenthere for over a hundred years.

SPEAKER_01 (05:24):
So it's been known about, they just didn't realize
it or understand exactly whatthe implications were of radon.
At first, when they werestudying all of this, they
literally thought it was justminers that were impacted by it.
They didn't realize that it cameup into houses.

SPEAKER_02 (05:41):
Yeah, and tell that story.
How they realize that hey, thisradon can be an issue in houses.

SPEAKER_01 (05:47):
So there was a gentleman that worked in a mine,
and I believe it was a uraniummine.
They were getting it set up.

SPEAKER_02 (05:53):
Yeah, it was a mine or they processed uranium.
I don't know exactly.

SPEAKER_01 (05:57):
My understanding was that that he they were helping
set it up.
So, like, there there wasn'tmuch of an interaction with
stuff at this point, but theyregularly checked them with
Geiger counters going in andout.
And he had such high levels whenthey checked him that they
thought he was stealing stuff.
He's swearing up and down thathe's innocent, that he didn't do

(06:19):
any of this.
So they go to the man's house.
His levels in his house wereover 5,000 for for radon.
And it was literally clinging tohis clothes.
There was that much radon in hishouse.
So they actually kicked hisfamily out.
I think they sent him to ahotel, if I recall correctly,
and that was the very firstremediation, mitigation creation

(06:45):
I know in the country, maybeeven in the world, for houses
that had high radon levels.
So they sat there, tried tofigure out ways to get this out,
and then they got it low enoughwhere they eventually allowed
the family to move back in.

unknown (06:58):
Okay.

SPEAKER_02 (06:59):
Yeah, so his clothes were radioactive.

SPEAKER_01 (07:01):
His clothes were radioactive because there was
such high levels in the house.

SPEAKER_02 (07:04):
And and radon is a radioactive substance, but it
breaks down to polonium, twoversions of polonium, which is
still radioactive.

SPEAKER_01 (07:13):
So and that's what sticks to your lungs and causes
the lung cancer.

SPEAKER_02 (07:18):
Remember, I we have habitation investigation has a
Geiger counter.
We ended up never needing it.
But we had some uh some ladycalled us, she was wanting to
donate furniture to somelocation, maybe it was a
recycling center.
It was a recycling center, shecould not donate it because it

(07:41):
came up as being radioactive,and she never heard of such a
thing.
And but it could have been wherethat furniture, this old office
furniture, was sitting, highradon levels, and over 10, 20
years, that radon broke downinto polonium and settled on the

(08:02):
furniture, and it stayed likethat for who knows how long.

SPEAKER_01 (08:06):
Yeah, we never um I never did find out if that was
actually the the confirmation.
That's what we told her wethought happened.

SPEAKER_02 (08:14):
But I do have a Geiger counter, which I I next
time we go to a museum, and Ithink they might have uranium
glass, which is really cool.
Yeah, it it's I don't think theymake it anymore.
I really don't know, but it isit's a cool kind of like a
fluorescent green collar, but itis I'm bringing the Geiger
counter next time just to seehow high that is.

SPEAKER_01 (08:35):
So anyway, so the only other thing that could
possibly do anything in naturalgas, they add a substance to it
so that you can smell it becausenatural gas naturally is
unsmellable.

SPEAKER_02 (08:49):
Odorless.
I like unsmellable.

SPEAKER_01 (08:51):
Unsmellable it's it's odorless.
So what do they add to that?

SPEAKER_02 (08:56):
They add mercaptin, which kind of smells like
sulfur, like rotten eggs.
Yeah, it's and that's it's ait's you'll know it.
It's a distinct odor.

SPEAKER_01 (09:05):
If you smell it, you will know there's a problem.

SPEAKER_02 (09:07):
Now that stuff can cause some uh health issues,
yeah.
But it can be it's an irritant,so it can cause headaches,
dizziness.
Man, if you if you if you'relike getting sick from it, like
puking, you you have way toomuch in that in that area.
But it could be if you'resensitive, it could be a little
bit of an irritant, but you youwould smell that in the natural

(09:29):
gas.
Because they add that topropane, also.
Right.
They add propane as well becauseit is odorless.

SPEAKER_01 (09:35):
But once again, Mercaptin is not going to
interact with radon and causeproblems because radon is a
noble gas and it doesn'tinteract with anything.

SPEAKER_02 (09:43):
Correct.

SPEAKER_01 (09:44):
So you would be reacting to the Mercaptin, not
the combination.
So whoever put that story out onthe internet, and we've not seen
it, we we genuinely have no cluewho said that.
They are either very misinformedand you should run the other
direction, or they are trying toscare people into either a
getting a radon system or bsomething with gas and you

(10:06):
should still run the other way.

SPEAKER_02 (10:07):
And it is surprising how many houses actually do have
a rate.
Um, I'm sorry, not well, here inOhio, a lot of them have some
have radon, but I was I wasthinking natural gas leaks or
gas line leaks.
And a lot of those leaks arethey're tiny, they will probably
never cause an explosion unlessthe house was sealed up
extremely tight and you got theslow leak going on forever, but

(10:30):
the amount of gas sneaking in isso low, and there's always
cracks and uh air exchangedoutside, so it's never gonna
build up.
But it is amazing how manyhouses actually have a little
gas line leak somewhere that'snot causing any issues, but you
want it's there.

SPEAKER_01 (10:46):
You want it fixed fixed.

SPEAKER_02 (10:47):
Yeah, you don't want it to I don't know, may if that
pipe has some vibration to it,will that gap get larger and
start allowing more coming in?
Don't know.
But you just get that fixed.
But yeah, radon, it's not gonnairritate your lungs, it's not
gonna interact with any othergas or chemical.
So you need if you want to knowthere's radon, you get have to

(11:08):
have testing for radonspecifically.

SPEAKER_01 (11:11):
Yes.
So it's a very simple test.

SPEAKER_02 (11:14):
Yep.
For Fearful State Ohio, you haveto have 48 hours of testing
data, and then that getsaveraged out so you know your
average uh radon level isbecause it does vary throughout
the day.

SPEAKER_01 (11:26):
And it also varies throughout seasons and it varies
throughout storms.

SPEAKER_02 (11:31):
Yes, so it actually the winter is coming up.
This is a good time to get yourindoor air quality tested
because as Laura will complain,it's getting cold out.
Yes, I will, and so windows arenot gonna be kept open, and so
you're any radar gas is comingin, is gonna get trapped there,

(11:51):
more likely.
Also, the ground when it'sfrozen.

SPEAKER_01 (11:55):
Less likelihood of escape.

SPEAKER_02 (11:56):
Yeah, because always radar gas sneaking up through
the soil and going out into theatmosphere.
In the house, it comes upunderneath the s in the basement
typically or through the slab.
That's your your that's thehouse's contact with the soil,
so it comes up through there.
But when the ground is frozen,that layer of of uh ice and snow

(12:17):
is like a cap to the soil.
So now the radon gas cannot comeup through the outside soil as
easily.
So now it's easier for that gasto come up through the house,
the soil, underneath the house,and then into the house.
That's why you have higherlevels in the house during the
wintertime because closedwindows, doors, and you have uh

(12:40):
a little bit more of a chimneyeffect because the ground
outside the house is capped.

SPEAKER_01 (12:45):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (12:46):
So I think I said on this one, but yeah, get this
good time to have your housetested for indoor air quality,
and that could be mold, radon,VOCs from aldehyde.
VOCs.
If you have a new house, like Iwould maybe we talk about this
another time, but if you havedone recent renovations to your
house, new furniture, and carpetand new bedding.

(13:07):
I would lean against doing thatduring the wintertime, but we'll
talk about that later on.
Yeah.
All right, thank you, everybody.
Bye bye.