Is radon testing required?

Hardly ever.  Zero US States require radon testing.

Read on for more details on radon testing requirements.  However, if you’re reading this, there is an extremely high likelihood that radon testing was not required where you reside OR that it did not have to be done by a trained professional.  Testing is cheap.  Read more testing FAQs here.

No federal, few state requirements

There are no federal consumer radon protections for most Americans.  Most consumer protections come at the municipal or state level.  Some lenders require radon testing: oftentimes because they are giving out a 15-30 year loan and the bankers want the loan holder to live to the end of the full term.

HUD has radon-ready new construction and testing requirements for federally-funded or assisted multifamily housing programs.  Many contractors that install these systems do so without any training whatsoever.  It’s not clear how many of these buildings actually test low for radon after construction as that data is not publicly available.  VA loans recommend radon testing, but do not require it.  I have personally witnessed dozens of uncertified professionals win bids on these jobs across the US.

How do I find out what requirements are near me?

The Indoor Environments Association (formerly AARST) is an industry non-profit trade group that compiles radon standards and works on awareness efforts nationwide.  They recently published state-level radon “report cards” by gathering data from credentialed radon testing laboratories, the EPA, CDC, and other privately held and publicly-available data.  You may view them here

This map is fantastic as it is much more up to date than the 1993 EPA radon risk map and it give more information on consumer protections, not just radon risk as a function of testing data.  I recommend testing your home immediately regardless of where you live, but use this map for more information on how your state views radon risk.

You can always check with local building or health departments to see what regulations they enforce.  This is a good call to make, as in Colorado, our tradegroup is often brought in because local building department are not enforcing a state standard or they are enforcing a different standard than the one they’re legally required to.  Getting information directly from the health and building departments, then matching it with what is on the books on a municipal or state level will often show you how little enforcement or directive is done near you.  It can prepare you for how to speak with a code official before you build your dream home, or how to choose a qualified radon professional to guide you through radon testing, construction, or post construction radon mitigation.

What about schools?  Is my child’s school safe from radon?

Ask them.  Ask your school administrators for their radon testing historical data.  Many states, including Colorado, have passed radon school testing requirements.  The problem is with enforcement.  Much like Colorado’s Radon Contractor licensing, the enforcement of school testing is not active.  This means someone has to raise a complaint against the school or file an information request.  Since the average American is completely oblivious to radon and its dangers, most schools end up un-tested since the standards are never followed up on.  I estimate less than half of Colorado schools comply based on my conversations within the industry.  This is true for many other US states.

Testing recommended sometimes, never required

Again, there is no federal or state law requiring radon testing.  The closest comes from lenders when they want to protect their investments.

Most state consumer protections fall into one of two categories: awareness mandates and contractor licensure.

An awareness mandate is a law that is designed to bring attention to radon as a class A carcinogen.  Colorado, for example, requires all home sales and leases have contract language highlighting radon’s dangers.  These mandates never mandate testing.  Research shows that these awareness mandates do increase testing; however, since enforcement is rarely active, not all contracts contain this legally-required language and most homes remain untested.  This is why choosing a realtor well-versed in radon and other dangerous home contaminants is so important.  Don’t let an ignorant realtor brush away radon questions.  Read our full home buyers guide to radon here.

Contractor licensure is another consumer protection law that is sometimes applied at the state level.  At the time of writing a handful of US states require licensure, but again, this is rarely actively enforced via a tag fee or permit system.  In Colorado, for example, it is required that radon professionals maintain a state license through DORA, but functionally this is an “honor system”.  I speak with contractors every day that compete with unlicensed individuals or refuse to be licensed themselves as they see it as a “waste of money”.  We hear of red flag installs on a near daily basis.

Radon testing mandates most often fail because the real estate or construction lobby does not want to slow down home sales or increase home prices with testing.  Obviously, as someone who has seen radon-induced lung cancer effect so many lives, I believe this is a calloused viewpoint to hold.  However, the radon lobby is often functioning with a tiny fraction of the funds of these much larger lobbyist groups*.  Contact your legislators if you’d like them to know you want more regulation when it comes to radon.

*Colorado’s multi-state non-profit trade-group has less than 300 individual members spread over four states and annual total budget of mid-five figures, whereas the Colorado Assosiation of Realtors (CAR) has over 23,000 members and have millions to spend on lobbying efforts.

Know your regulations, ask for credentials

The burden of radon protection falls upon you: the reader.  It’s up to you to know if you and your family are safe by following EPA guidance: test for radon at least once every five years (once every two years if you have an existing system).

Never assume that your radon testing or mitigation contractor is licensed or trained in any way.  Always ask them for their credential.  Follow up to see if their credential has any complaints against it.  The acceptable credentials for my family would be a state license with no complaints against it or an NRPP or NRSB credential (again, complaint free).  NRPP stands for National Radon Proficiency Program and NRSB stands for National Radon Safety Board.

Sources: AARST.org, NRSB, NRPP, EPA, CDC, VA, HUD, and other gov’t agencies