Durability of radon remedial actions

In the UK, approximately 3600 householders are believed to have taken action to reduce high radon concentrations in their homes. In 1993 a number of those householders who had taken successful remedial actions were invited to participate in a study of durability of radon remedial actions. This involved the radon concentration being remeasured annually. Results for 26 such homes where a complete set of data are available and a further 32 with incomplete data are discussed here. All remedial actions were shown to remain durable during a period of 5 years. The largest variation in effectiveness was found in houses with natural ventilation of the underfloor void. The failure rate for all remedial measures was found to be 4.0% per annum, but in most cases the problems were noticed by the householder and corrected. The frequency of failures which were not noticed until a remeasurement was carried out was 0.4% per annum.