When you breathe air containing radon, you increase your risk of getting lung cancer. In fact, the Surgeon General has warned that radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer in the United States today. If you smoke and your home has high radon levels, your risk of lung cancer is especially high. A gaseous highly radioactive element. Discovered by English physicist Ernest Rutherford in 1899.
Radon is a colorless, chemically unreactive inert gas, it is the densest gas known.
It has been used in the treatment of cancer by radiotherapy. In homes and other buildings, in some areas of the world, radon produced by the radioactive decay of uranium-238 present in soil and rock can reach levels regarded as dangerous. Testing is the only way to know your home s radon levels. There are no immediate symptoms that will alert you to the presence of radon. It typically takes years of exposure before any problems surface and then it is too late.