display
The Federal Office for Radiation Protection has warned against permanent home office in the basement because of possible exposure to radon.
"Radon concentrations are sometimes reached in basement rooms that are harmful to health in the long term," said BfS expert Bernd Hoffmann of "Wirtschaftswoche" according to a report on Sunday.
The exposure to the naturally occurring radioactive noble gas should therefore be checked.
Radon is mainly produced when uranium decays in the ground.
Radon dilutes quickly in the outside air and is usually not a problem there. However, it can accumulate inside buildings.
If radon is inhaled in higher concentrations for a long period of time, the risk of lung cancer increases.
Radon is one of the most common causes of lung cancer after smoking.
In Germany, radon is distributed very differently depending on the regional geological properties.
In the north German lowlands, for example, radon concentrations are usually low, while they are higher in most of the low mountain ranges, for example.
display
The radon concentration is usually measured with what are known as nuclear track detectors.
The small jars, which according to the BfS everyone can get from a laboratory, are set up for three months or longer and sent in later.
Such a measurement costs around 30 euros.
"The annual average value should not exceed 300 Becquerel per cubic meter of air," said Hoffmann.
In some particularly polluted areas, however, 1000 to 10,000 Becquerel would be measured in the basement.
Nevertheless, you don't necessarily have to do without the home office in the basement.
In order to reduce the concentration, pipe accesses and cracks could be sealed, and small ventilation systems could extract the gas, the expert recommends.
However, ventilation is not a permanent solution.