I made a post a while back asking if anyone had experiences with radon and possible affects on their cats.
In short. I brought home a 7 week old kitten last July. The radon in the house when tested was 3.5 so the realtor said not too worry. I didn't even know what it was at the time and the stress of buying a home made me sideline it after being told that it doesn't need mitigation. A year later I did some research and realized that it can cause cancer in the later years of our lives. Granted it only counts for rough 2,900 deaths a year for non smokers.
The issue is that I brought a young kitten into a home with high radon levels. If the radon measured to be 3.5 in spring/summer, then who knows how high it claimed in winter. I called the ASPCA poison control and they did say that yes she would be more susceptible to lung cancer in the future since she was in her growing phase. Obviously not guaranteed. Nothing may happen, but the fact that I didn't do my due diligence and put her even at the slightest risk makes me feel like I failed her. I plan on talking to the vet on ways to monitor stuff like lung cancer.
Just feel like crap for all of it. She's healthy right now, but I'm gonna be thinking about this forever. Working on mitigation still. It's in the Midwest where there is almost no one in the area who even knows about this. Plus hardly anyone around who mitigates. So trying some easy ways myself til some items arrive as it's quicker than waiting 3+ months.
In short. I brought home a 7 week old kitten last July. The radon in the house when tested was 3.5 so the realtor said not too worry. I didn't even know what it was at the time and the stress of buying a home made me sideline it after being told that it doesn't need mitigation. A year later I did some research and realized that it can cause cancer in the later years of our lives. Granted it only counts for rough 2,900 deaths a year for non smokers.
The issue is that I brought a young kitten into a home with high radon levels. If the radon measured to be 3.5 in spring/summer, then who knows how high it claimed in winter. I called the ASPCA poison control and they did say that yes she would be more susceptible to lung cancer in the future since she was in her growing phase. Obviously not guaranteed. Nothing may happen, but the fact that I didn't do my due diligence and put her even at the slightest risk makes me feel like I failed her. I plan on talking to the vet on ways to monitor stuff like lung cancer.
Just feel like crap for all of it. She's healthy right now, but I'm gonna be thinking about this forever. Working on mitigation still. It's in the Midwest where there is almost no one in the area who even knows about this. Plus hardly anyone around who mitigates. So trying some easy ways myself til some items arrive as it's quicker than waiting 3+ months.