Radon exposure full blown panic🤯

Hello all. This is my first post although I have been a "lurker" of this site for some time. I was diagnosed with generalized anxiety at the age of 5. I'm 38 now. I usually have my anxiety under control. However I have a health concern that I couldn't find much about on here and there is so much conflicting info online.
A few days ago I read a post on a community thread on Facebook about our towns water quality. Someone asked if anyone drinks the water in our town. Of course there were many responses. Someone posted a link to the water report. The report showed a slightly elevated level of radioactive particles in the water and there was a corrective violation put into place in 2018.
This didn't concern me too much as the level wasn't super high. What has caused me to go into a full blown state of panic is when I looked to see what these contaminants were. It listed radium. So I looked up dangers of radium and found information on radon gas. I'm 38 years old and I have never even heard of dangers of radon in homes. Most of what I'm seeing says that radon can cause lung cancer in areas where radon is higher. My family and I live in the house I grew up in. We use our whole house. Our basement is mostly finished except for the utility room at the back which contains the sump pump, washer and dryer. Our family room, my sons bedroom, our bedroom and a bathroom is all at basement level. My daughters bedroom is upstairs along with my parents who also live here. We have used this space for the better part of 8 years. I'm terrified that we may have been exposed to higher levels of radon and we didnt even know! I'm afraid that I've doomed my son to lung cancer when he is older! We have to live here for at least 3-4 more years. I'm not sure what do think or do. I know I should test the home (my family thinks I'm overreacting) but I'm scared to find out the results I'm so scared to even breathe the air our home now. I'm so scared for my children! The house was built in the 50s, we bought in 1986. My parents have lived here all that time and they have no respiratory issues.
I guess my reason fo posting is to ask if my fear is overblown? Has anyone else had any fears of this? or any information? I do apologize for the lengthy post. Thank you to those who take the time to read this.
:)
AlyAjay.

I live in a place with generally high radon levels. Everyone I know has basements. Everyone I know spends a lot of time in them. I know loads of folks. I know one, singular person who passed from lung cancer, and he chain smoked for 50 years.

I know radon probably isn't a great thing to have around, but an increased risk doesn't mean it is a huge risk. I also expect radon revenment, a real industry, probably does what they can to scare up some extra business.

Thank you for the quick reply. I truly appreciate it! I live is a slightly elevated area according to an interactive radon map. I'm just so nervous about it pooling in basement. I know it isnt sealed properly. I've been opening the windows up more even with the central air on. I think that I will probably even have them open in the winter as well. Though my son doesnt like his open over night. I should have mentioned that we are a non smoking home. My parents were smokers up until 1995.
So much conflicting info on the internet is maddening.
Thanks again for the reply and the reassurance!
:)
AlyAjay

I work for a university, and when I was a student I worked for the same university, different department. I was in the conference registration department (we handled registrations for events the university put on) but for some reason we also sold radon test kits? So I actually do know a good bit about radon.

For one, it is possible for radon to be in your water, but it dissipates in the air before it even hits your glass, so no worries there.

Your basement not being "sealed properly" may actually be a positive as it will allow fresh air in/radon air out. Essentially, it's fine to be exposed to radon (and we all are exposed at some point or another), you just don't want it trapped in an enclosed area.

I'd recommend testing your house, especially if you live in an area where radon is higher and if you plan to sell in the future. Check with your health department - they'll often sell the kits for much cheaper, or will give them out free. It could be good info to know. You'll test in the lowest level of your house that you use regularly; in your case, the basement. The idea is that if the basement is clear, the whole house is fine. If you have any issues with the level, they'll recommend you look into putting a radon mitigation system in.

Based on what you've said, I wouldn't be worried. We didn't test the kits ourselves, but our number was on them so I'd get calls after people had done the testing and were looking at the results - I think in my two years of working there I referred maybe 2 people on to contacts about mitigation, and neither had super high or alarming levels, just something they wanted to consider.

Thank you so much Poppy for the reply! Both you and lofwyr have eased my mind greatly! We are definitely going shopping for a testing kit and or meter this coming weekend. My husband looked a little more into radon exposure and while he isnt nearly concerned about it as I am, he agrees that we should test and correct any problems if they are there. It is good to hear that only 2 of the people discussed results with needed mitigation. I'm hoping we dont need it.
Regarding the basement not being properly sealed, we do have two points of water seepage in our basement. One point is newer. They are both low on the wall. Our basement is dry walled so we have to rip that all out and some flooring to take care of that. I'm hoping there isnt much gas coming in from those spots. However those to areas are usually pretty ventilated. The other concern is the sump pump. It has never in the time we have lived here been covered. At least not airtight covered. We are definitely going to fix these things asap!
The county I live in is slightly elevated at a 4.3. I know other states and counties have much higher rates. So hopefully this is in my favor when it comes to how much is entering my home. For now, I will keep all basement windows open and some fans going.
Thanks Again!
AlyAjay 🙂