Do Home buyers fear radon?
Initially some consumers who were considering buying a home where a radon mitigation system was seen installed were frightened, thinking that the home was dangerous, regardless of the effectiveness of the radon mitigation system and regardless of the original, possibly low initial radon level that led to the installation of that system. At a home inspection in 1996 radon was tested and later found to be present at a level of less than 1 pCi/L. The home buyer told the inspector that he intended to demand that radon level in his home be brought to zero, regardless of current best advice on the actual risk level. Expert opinion was that mitigation of a home for radon at this level was not appropriate, wasted money, and risked stigamtizing the house. Our graph (left) plots the level of consumer fear of environmental hazards over time. As we depict in this normal curve of enviromental anxiety, for virtually all hazards, regardless of the level of actual health risk, consumer worry increases
