I am a steakholder in the radon measurement and mitigation profession. My professional focus is in radon measurement of multifamily housing and skilled nursing facilities. A measurement project of a large multi-family apartment complex may contain 400 living units or more. If completed improperly, hundreds of residents can be negatively impacted. Radon is the leading environmental cause of lung cancer.  Radiation exposure due to improper measurement and mitigation installation in multifamily housing has the potential to expose large numbers of Virginia residents in a single poorly completed project.

Radon measurement is part of real estate due diligence for both single family and multifamily lending, in initial loan authorization and refinancing.  In multifamily housing, this accounts for several thousand living units annually. Freddie Mac is a federal government backed lending agency. The Freddie Mac radon policy for multifamily lending applies differently to states with state regulations and those states without regulations. For non-regulated states the radon policy is to measure radon in 10% of the ground level units, allowing as few as 1 test per residential apartment building. In regulated states, Freddie Mac requires radon measurement to follow state laws.  This is a disparity between sampling 10% versus 100% of ground contact units, as well as the 10% of each upper levels units in each building.  You can see how many residents are negatively impacted by not being included in sampling.  Regulations matter.

Licensing and regulation allows for states to enforce compliance to adopted standards of practice.  Without auditing, inspection, oversight, and education, the state is blindly relying on anyone conducting radon services to act in good faith and provide a quality product that meets industry standards.  When in reality, there is a whole spectrum of work being completed from very poor quality to exceeding expectations.  The problem is that poor quality radon measurement or mitigation puts Virginia residents health at serious risk to radiation exposure and lung cancer.  This can be mitigated by establishing regulation and enforce adherence.

Many states across the country successfully regulate radon today. There are also many states in the process of passing legislation to regulate radon in their state, because they see the value and the health benefit to their residents.