Does the act of testing affect your radon levels?

Hurdles to testing

Testing for radon is an extremely low-cost preventative healthcare measure.  Kits are readily available for free from non-profits and health departments, and the cost for paid kits is less than $20.  However, millions of Americans neglect radon testing each and every year.  Why is that?

Endowment effect or ownership bias

The endowment effect is a cognitive bias whereby individuals place a higher value on something they already own rather than an object they’ve yet to acquire.  Ownership bias is a related phenomenon where our own attachment to an item increases its value relative to a non-owner.  It’s for this reason we experience loss aversion: the pain of losing something is stronger than a perceived gain of something new.

I hypothesize that this has a relation to our aversion to radon testing.  We “own” the hope that our home is free from radon.  Why wouldn’t we–we have no evidence to the contrary?  In testing for it, we’re giving up that ownership and now gambling on a negative possibility.  The distinct possibility that we have high radioactivity in our homes.  Psychologically speaking, it takes a lot to give up this ownership, which I believe is why we so often see homeowners neglect radon testing despite it being a rational choice that would recoup a high return on initial investment–all things considered.  In reality, the perceived negative of a high radon test is actually a positive, as you can now fix your radon problem and lower your radioactive exposure.  However, in my talks with the general public, most folks don’t consider finding high radon levels a “good thing”.

Schrödinger‘s House

If you never test for radon, are your levels high or low?  Quantum mechanics and random subatomic events lead German Physicist Edward Schrödinger to devise his famous “cat thought experiment” in the early 20th century.  Hypothetically, a cat placed in an enclosed box is both alive and dead until it is observed.  In his original hypothetical Schrödinger placed a cat, a flask of poison, and a radioactive source in a box.  If a Geiger counter detects random radioactivity, then the poison flask is shattered and the cat dies.  If no atom triggers this event, then the cat lives.  Mathematically, the cat exists in superposition as both alive and dead until an observer ends quantum superposition by opening the box.  Does our radon level do the same?  …No

Conclusion

Schrödinger’s cat and Schrödinger’s house are both hypotheticals.  In reality, you either have a dead cat or you don’t.  A Geiger counter won’t kill your cat but a radon test could save its life!

Your radon levels are not effected by your decision to test.  You either live with high radioactivity, breathing in an unhealthy dose of radiation each and every day, or you don’t.  There’s one surefire way to know for sure: become the observer.

And literally…

Now for those that are sticklers for my premise: yes, the act of testing can have an effect on your radon levels.  This is why radon testing standards are several dozen pages long.  A real estate certified radon test is not as simple as tossing a cannister in any random space: many considerations must be taken into account.  When a test is performed, the tester seeks to control as many variables as possible to get a reliable result.  Again, this is due to the infrequent nature of testing by the homeowner themselves.  For the article premise: I just had this thought one day while lying in bed because radon is something I can’t escape even in my dreams—haha.