Radon Safety in Your Home, Rich Beasley

home health and safety, radon risks and remediation, U.P. holistic business, U.P. holistic wellness publication

Radon is a naturally occurring radioactive gas that results from the breakdown of uranium in the ground. This odorless, tasteless gas can enter your home through cracks in the foundation, sump pumps, drain tile, floor-wall joints, exposed soil in unfinished basements, and well water. Before cooler weather brings you indoors more, you may want to test your U.P. home for unsafe levels of radon. Let’s explore why.

Radon Health Risks

Radon doesn’t pose a significant risk outdoors because it quickly disperses into the atmosphere. The real threat arises when radon gets stuck inside a tightly sealed home, causing an unsafe gas accumulation. Radon is only implicated in one adverse health effect, but it’s a biggie-the EPA reports that radon gas is estimated to cause roughly 21,000 lung cancer deaths each year in the U.S. alone. How Common is Radon in the Upper Peninsula? Radon can be present in any type of shelter, home, or structure. In general, the Upper Peninsula is at medium to low risk for radon. But that doesn’t mean your home couldn’t have high radon levels. Some areas of the U.P. are at a higher risk for radon exposure than others.

Radon exposure by county in the U.P. according to the state of Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy:

1-9% of homes tested exceeded safe radon levels in Baraga, Keweenaw, Ontonagon, Luce, and Schoolcraft County.
10-24% of homes tested exceeded safe radon levels in Alger, Chippewa, Delta, Gogebic, Houghton, Marquette, Mackinac, and Menominee County.

25% or more homes tested exceeded safe radon levels in Iron and Dickinson County.

Radon is like an underwater spring – it covers a wide area but only exits the ground in a few key spots. Because of this, you can’t depend on test results from other homes in your neighborhood to determine what your home’s radon levels are.

Signs and Symptoms of Radon Exposure

Chest pain
Coughing up blood
Fatigue
Frequent bouts of bronchitis and pneumonia
Hoarseness
Loss of appetite
Persistent cough
Shortness of breath
Weight loss
Wheezing

If you are currently experiencing any of these symptoms, be sure to schedule an appointment with your health care provider right away. However, there’s usually a significant delay (often years) between exposure and signs of illness, so it’s wise to be diligent in monitoring for signs.

How to Test for Radon

When it comes to testing for radon in your home, you have two options. The first is to purchase an at-home test kit. While a home radon monitoring device is not as accurate or precise as professional radon testing, it’s an excellent starting point. The second option is to hire a local home inspector to conduct a radon test. Professional testing typically involves a 48-hour sampling period during which the equipment is left in your home for monitoring.
If a radon test reveals unacceptable levels of radon in your home, standard procedure is to confirm these findings using different equipment. Radon levels can also fluctuate significantly with the seasons. For these reasons, I often encourage people to invest in home monitoring equipment first. Then, if you notice a pattern of high radon readings, you can call in a professional for confirmation.

Ultimately, the way you choose to test for radon is up to you. Whether you choose to hire a professional or use an at-home test kit, the important thing is that you’re testing one way or another.

What Should You Do If You Find Radon in Your Home?

If you find unsafe radon levels in your home, try implementing the following mitigation strategies:

Increase the ventilation throughout your home.
Invest in a radon-reduction system (these systems can reduce radon levels by up to 99%).
Caulk and seal foundation cracks and openings.
Create a gas-permeable layer beneath the slab or flooring.

If these measures don’t work, contact a professional radon mitigation company to assist you.

The bottom line is this: Radon is easy to test for and easy to prevent. If you can’t remember the last time your home was tested for radon, now is the time to make it a priority.

Rich Beasley is an InterNACHI Certified Home Inspector and owner of UP Home Inspection, LLC. He holds over a dozen specialty certifications, including Mold Inspector, Radon Tester, Water Quality Tester, Indoor Air Consultant, and many more.

Creative Inspiration: A Secret Plan for Poets, Ronnie Ferguson

creative inspiration, secret plan for poets, brainstorming support, U.P. holistic wellness publication, U.P. holistic business

“Everything is a boss… You must always have a secret plan!”

– from “Bad Deal/Secret Plan” by theillalogicalspoon (https://theillalogicalspoon.bandcamp.com/track/bad-deal-secret-plan)

In many ways, poetry workshops during the pandemic have been like physical workouts with a group of friends. We all agree to meet in the Zoom “Fitness Center,” the one on the corner of Comfy Chair and Computer, around 7 pm. Over the course of two hours, we try out three different “machines” (writing prompts) that, if all goes well, get our hearts going and stretch us in new ways so our poetry muscles grow. After each exercise, we take turns flexing in our rectangles. We make each other laugh, and sometimes laugh at ourselves. We take risks. We virtual-hug. Most importantly—we feast, passing around encouragement like delicious sides to the main course, which is always We Hear You. Workshops can be a worthwhile discipline for poets, and often lead to joy and revelation.

But sometimes things don’t go as planned. We stare at the blank page and, even with a carefully crafted prompt, nothing comes. The ten-minute time limit ticks away. Maybe we pray. Maybe we panic. If we’re lucky, inspiration makes an appearance before the end, and we scribble until the last second (or after). No time for options. No time for second-guessing. Barely legible. Is it intelligible? Who knows? But at least we have something to share. This is a great strength of the timed prompt—it forces us to write something, anything.

Adding a wrinkle to the format can make the experience even better.

For many poets, getting started is half the battle. For some, it is the battle. It’s not uncommon for poets to collect kernels of inspiration throughout their life. These might be lines of poetry without a home, images, stories, snippets of dreams, random articles, overheard conversations, and more. Lists can get long; inspiration folders can get thick; and there’s always the danger of our kernels remaining, simply, “great ideas I once had but never used.” That is, unless these kernels find a home.

For this reason, in the poetry workshops I’ve been leading, I give participants a three-minute brainstorming prompt—a way of collecting kernels in real time—before they’re challenged with a poetry prompt. When I attend workshops led by other poets, I often bring a single page filled with unused kernels of inspiration. Sometimes the prompts are enough, but when nothing comes, sometimes my unused kernels pair with the prompt in surprising ways and get me started. This is a secret plan for poets: Come prepared to poetry workshops with your own ideas so that, whether or not a prompt inspires you, you’re never forced to stare at a blank page. Allowing yourself this flexibility, this pairing of creativity with creativity, can help you be a better steward of the potential-packed kernels you’ve collected throughout your life.

“An inspiration passes, having been inspired never passes.”
-Abraham Joshua Heschel

Three-Part Poetry Exercise – The People We Pass:

Gather some of your kernels of inspiration and jot them on a single page.
Set a timer for three minutes and, on the same page, brainstorm as many people who you see regularly, near or afar, but never speak with. In most cases you will not know their name, so find some way to identify them, such as “Guy Who Mows My Neighbor’s Lawn” or “Woman I Always See at the Laundromat.” Before moving on, note any interesting connections between your kernels and the people you’ve listed in your brainstorm.
Set a timer for ten minutes and, on a different page, write a poem that considers or imagines the experience of one of the people. You may choose to observe and reflect from afar, allow the poem’s speaker to interact with the person, or allow your poem to take on the voice of the person. Here’s a poem I wrote using this same exercise:

Joy to the World

six mornings a week for minimum wage
the woman with three fingers
serves the greasy eggs and bacon
biscuits
coffee and cream

to all the tough faces
the old hairy moles
the saggy scalps
the hard of hearing
and harder to please

with this hive of damn-near-dead complainers
it’s a mystery she’s usually smiling
but if i had to guess
God has blessed her
cuz she still paints her nails pink

*If you write a poem, please send it to me at rofergus@nmu.edu. I’d love to connect and read your work and tell you about upcoming poetry workshops. I hope to write and share with you soon!

Link to “Bad Deal/Secret Plan” by theillalogicalspoon:
https://theillalogicalspoon.bandcamp.com/track/bad-deal-secret-plan

Ronnie Ferguson is an MFA candidate and an instructor in the English department at Northern Michigan University. A King Chavez Parks Fellow and President of the Graduate Writing Association, his creative work (often hybrid) spans the genres of poetry, music, film, theatre, fiction, and the visual arts.

Holistic Animal Care: Help for Rescue Animals & Their People! Jenny Magli

help with rescue animal, holistic animal care, holistic wellness publication

I have experienced some wonderful rescue animals in my home over the years, and have great memories of all of them. It seems to be my “thing,” and I wouldn’t have it any other way. They are deserving of all the love and care they can get, especially since most of them have come from an abuse and/or neglect situation. Thank goodness there are now more no-kill shelters than ever before. There are also animals that are victims of circumstances when an owner has died. These often aging animals end up with other family or friends if they’re lucky, or a shelter situation if they’re not.

So here are some points to consider.

Please make sure you and your family are absolutely ready to commit to a lifetime of love and care for the animal you adopt. This includes medical care. If you are not 100% sure you are ready to adopt, you might consider fostering first. This way you get an idea of what it will take to care for the animal, and also get some guidance from a shelter along with veterinary care while the pet is with you. You might end up as a “foster fail” because you’ve fallen in love with the pet and wish to have it in your home for the rest of its life. This happens a lot, and is not a bad thing!

Prepare your home for this new addition. Pet proofing your home is important. Keep hazardous items out of reach. Remove loose cords or cables. Safely store medicines, cleaners and chemicals out of reach. Remove poisonous plants and anything that could potentially be chewed and/or swallowed.

Patience is key!

You are coming together typically not knowing much, if anything, about the animal’s past. If you are able to learn something, that’s a bonus! Time will be needed to get to know each other. Remember, typically the animal has come from a shelter or rescue situation, so it will likely be nervous, confused, anxious, scared, sad, bewildered, etc. Imagine how you would feel if you were in this animal’s position!

The first week is often the most challenging but also a wonderful discovery period. Your new pet needs some structure and guidance on what you expect from it, including where it will sleep, nap, eat, play, and so on. As you get through each day, you will learn more about each other. Don’t expect everything to go smoothly. It takes time to become familiar with each other and get into a routine. The animal needs time to adjust and warm up to you and your family, so give it space but also give love and attention. Pet, groom, and play with your pet. Providing a pet bed in a quiet area or crate creates a safe space where it can relax.

If you have other pets in the household, give them time to gradually get to know each other. Avoid forcing them to be together. Let this happen slowly, cautiously, and always with supervision!

Some training will be necessary.

Setting boundaries to stay off furniture and counters or teaching basic commands such as sit and stay are important from the start. If you have a pet with bad habits, or just have trouble with training on your own, there’s an abundance of trainers out there to help for a fee.

If you know the breed of the dog, it can be helpful to study about that breed to help you understand its character traits better.

Some frustration with the new pet is inevitable. Patience and time are needed to get through this first phase. You can do it!

Jenny is a Certified Natural Health Consultant for pets and their people, and a Healing Touch for Animals (Level 2) and NES BioEnergetics Practitioner. Consultations are done over the phone and through email. To contact, call or text (906) 235-3524 or email 1healthlink@gmail.com.

Green Living: Climate’s Magic Pill, Steve Waller

green living, climate change, climate support

Heat domes, temperature records, droughts, wildfires, smoky UP air from Canadian fires. On June 29th Lytton, British Columbia (near Vancouver, BC) recorded an all-time Canadian record high temperature of 49.6°C (121 °F). Then, the next day, that town burned in a wildfire! People were evacuated. Some died.

Is this our new normal? When will it end? Likely not in your lifetime. Humans haven’t figured out how to renounce fossil fuel, but have invented a magic pill that, like aspirin, ignores the problem but relieves the symptoms—air conditioning. As the climate changes, areas that rarely used AC before, such as the U.P., are now rushing to beat the heat by installing AC. But read this first!

We are living more like human dairy products, in refrigerated spaces behind closed doors, protected from the overheated environment. We go from refrigerated houses to refrigerated cars to refrigerated workplaces, then a quick stop at a refrigerated store on the way home.

The magic AC pill comes in two colors: Blue (conventional AC) and red (heat pumps).

Blue pill (conventional AC): Cools your house using more electricity. The blue pill makes you feel physically better, but the additional electricity generates more CO2, making the global problem worse!

Red pill (heat pump): Cools your house using more electricity, but the heat pump supplement for your furnace can also heat your house for much of the cool weather seasons as well as heat hot water. It generates more CO2 during hot weather, like AC, yes, but less CO2 in colder weather. Total annual CO2 is significantly less. Here’s why:

AC doesn’t “create cold.” It simply moves heat from inside your house to the outside. Refrigerators move heat from inside the fridge to the kitchen, making the fridge cooler and the kitchen warmer.

Home heat pumps can pump (move) heat either way. In summer, they move heat outside, exactly like AC. In cool weather, heat pumps run the AC backwards, moving heat from outside back inside, even at freezing outdoor temperatures or slightly below.

Heat pumps can heat your home while generating less CO2 than oil, gas, even electric furnaces. Heat pumps use much less energy because they just move heat to where you want it, outside or inside.

But there is a problem. HVAC contractors spend a lot of time talking people out of getting heat pumps. Heat pumps are not what they are accustomed to, so they discourage them in favor of their favorites—fossil heat and traditional AC. That locks customers into another thirty years of fossil fuels. Boo. Bad. We must move away from fossil energy. Electricity is slowly getting cleaner. Fossils never will. We must go all-electric.

Contractors will claim that heat pumps won’t work because there’s little heat to move at -30˚F. That’s true and that’s why I suggest the red pill as a supplement. On those -30˚F days, use fossils if you must. But the rest of the time, with the help of your thermostat or control system, you can use the heat pump.

There is a special cold weather heat pump option–ground-source heat pumps (GSHPs). Ground below the frost line doesn’t freeze. GSHPs can capture enough heat for your house most of the winter. Back-up is only needed on the absolute coldest days. GSHPs cost significantly more but eliminate fossils.

When it comes to home heating, especially if we end up with a carbon tax, as I believe we will, heat pumps are our best solution. We need young HVAC heat pump specialists to start new businesses providing the expertise and equipment needed to install heat pumps cost efficiently, to out-compete stubborn fossil contractors stuck in the fossil fuel era. It’s the smart move.

Steve Waller’s family lives in a wind- and solar-powered home. He has been involved with conservation and energy issues since the 1970s and frequently teaches about energy. Steve can be reached at Steve@UPWallers.net.