Bergen is surrounded by mountains, craggy, grey granite mountains!. This is reflected everywhere you look in the choice of building materials, whether it is for houses, schools, paths, walls or garden landscaping.. Easily available, granite and marble is everywhere! Polished to a high gloss, or rough and raw shot with shiny flecks of mica it reflects Norway's cultural landscape, harsh but beautiful. The rock, however, hides a secret.
Have you ever heard of radon gas? It is radioactive, colourless and odourless and found together with uranium, which in turn exists in certain types of granite. It is considered to be the second leading cause of lung cancer after smoking. Radon is only emitted from granite that is cracked and fissured, so it is a problem in some places and not in others - Norway has a big problem! The granite deposits here have been reworked many times by earthquakes and plate movements, scoured by glaciers and just plain worn down by hard weather conditions. The cracked granite leaks radon gas like a sieve. Apparently Norway has the highest concentrations of the stuff in the world.
So the problem is, radon is all around us, particularly here on the west coast. It isn't dangerous whilst levels are low in the great outdoors, but it does become a problem if you are living in a basement or ground floor flat with poor ventilation!!
So our local Health service is on a mission to get every house in Bergen to measure radon levels. Autumn and winter are the best time to do it, and you have to keep one or two radon monitors somewhere in your flat or house (as close to the ground as possible) for 2 months. The monitor is then sent away and the readings registered. Cost about £50 (NOK540)
The level allowed is 100Bq/m3, which means nothing to me, but they had to close a school recently on Bjørøyna, an island south of Bergen as levels were too high. The problem is easily solved by improving ventilation, but it must be worrying for parents.
Wonder whether the landlord has checked it out at all?
Have you ever heard of radon gas? It is radioactive, colourless and odourless and found together with uranium, which in turn exists in certain types of granite. It is considered to be the second leading cause of lung cancer after smoking. Radon is only emitted from granite that is cracked and fissured, so it is a problem in some places and not in others - Norway has a big problem! The granite deposits here have been reworked many times by earthquakes and plate movements, scoured by glaciers and just plain worn down by hard weather conditions. The cracked granite leaks radon gas like a sieve. Apparently Norway has the highest concentrations of the stuff in the world.
So the problem is, radon is all around us, particularly here on the west coast. It isn't dangerous whilst levels are low in the great outdoors, but it does become a problem if you are living in a basement or ground floor flat with poor ventilation!!
So our local Health service is on a mission to get every house in Bergen to measure radon levels. Autumn and winter are the best time to do it, and you have to keep one or two radon monitors somewhere in your flat or house (as close to the ground as possible) for 2 months. The monitor is then sent away and the readings registered. Cost about £50 (NOK540)
The level allowed is 100Bq/m3, which means nothing to me, but they had to close a school recently on Bjørøyna, an island south of Bergen as levels were too high. The problem is easily solved by improving ventilation, but it must be worrying for parents.
Wonder whether the landlord has checked it out at all?
No comments:
Post a Comment