Excerpt from article by Property Scan – Your Home, Your Health published at investor.bg
… The topic of property price movements is making the headlines, but a rather different perspective of the property market remains out of the homeowners’ focus – the inspection of the property for thermal losses, radiation, level of radon, moisture, electromagnetic smog, and air quality.
Answer to the question of why the topic is not popular enough in our country and what are the risks if we are not familiar with it, Investor.bg sought from Georgi Bylgarski, founder of the platform Property Scan, which does comprehensive surveys of properties for thermal losses, radiation, structural dampness, radon, air quality and radio frequency pollution.
Why is the topic of property surveys not popular enough in our country?
Bylgarski began to be interested in the topic 7-8 years ago when he was looking for a family home. “We wanted to make sure that, in addition to being legally sound and with solid construction, the property we would like to buy would not pose risks to our health and, above all, to our children’s health. Back then, even we weren’t fully aware of the health risks a building could pose,” he said. So, it turns out that in addition to radiation and thermography, there are separate companies that make a measurement for radon and others for electrosmog.
“Eventually, we did not find information about a single company that provides comprehensive surveys of properties, so that when the new or the current owners or tenants want to find out whether the property is hiding unsuspected risks to the health of the occupants, to turn to one company for all services,” commented Bylgarski.
Throughout the years, friends began to approach them with a request to conduct a comprehensive survey for their properties, until finally the entire package of measurements for construction driven health hazard was bundled under the service “Family Health”. This complex service includes radiation (alpha, beta and gamma radiation), structural dampness, radon measurement, air quality (HCHO, TVOC, PM2.5, CO2) and radio frequency pollution (electrosmog).
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Do you know that you could be smoking 2-3 packs of cigarettes a day, without being a smoker?
“We often come across radon levels in the basements of residential buildings, comparable to the health impact of smoking one, two, even three packs of cigarettes a day, or, for example, or in chest X-rays equivalent of 200-300 per year,” Bylgarski said.
We did an interesting experiment where we found that a wireless router or a mobile phone, located 30 centimeters from a person’s body, has the same influence as an antenna of a mobile operator, located 30 meters from the body of a person.
According to Bylgarski, what is interesting for most customers is that in natural conditions we receive by breathing 73% of the average annual radiation reaching us, while another 11% reach us through cosmic rays, 9% – through food and only 7% – from terrestrial sources.
He adds that the intense low-frequency electromagnetic radiation, which is driven by the accumulation of non-ionizing radiation, has the property of affecting cells in the human body.
… unlike ionizing radiation, non-ionizing radiation does not have enough energy to alter the cellular structure. However, prolonged exposure to this type of radiation has a negative effect. One of the main prerequisites for harm is the ability to increase the levels of oxidative stress, which is considered one of the leading causes of many diseases such as migraine, chronic fatigue, insomnia, cardiovascular problems, hormonal changes, erectile dysfunction, fertility problems, weakened immune system, leukemia, increased risk of breast cancer, etc.
What is the radiation footprint of radon gas on people in normal conditions on earth?
Radon is a natural factor of our environment and is a natural source of ionizing radiation, explains Bylgarski. It is a natural radioactive gas without color and smell and is present in nature, regardless of human activity. It is formed by the decay of uranium in the soil, rocks and water, from where it enters the air. It passes unimpeded through concrete structures. Radon quickly breaks down into radioactive particles that are deposited on the dust floating in the air, from where it gets inhaled and thence deposited on our airways and lungs. The danger to human health is due to these radioactive decay products. The only way to detect increased radon concentrations is by specialized measurement/survey. Radon is the second most important factor for lung cancer after smoking and the number one factor for people who have never smoked. Its concentration in buildings is significantly greater than in the open air.
According to Bylgarski, an easy solution to such a problem is more intense and prolonged ventilation of the premises. However, if radon meters count levels above 150 Bq/m3, it is recommended to take radon-mitigation measures. In the simplest case, they are vents with pumps/ventilators for removal of radon from the habitable premises.
Bq/m3 – one becquerel (Bq) is equal to one radioactive decay per second. Radon concentrations in air are usually measured in becquerels per cubic meter (Bq/m3). That’s the amount of radon (becquerels) in a volume of air (cubic metre).