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Comment by dgfitz | Hacker News Reader

This point always amuses me. Thats like, 1 starbucks coffee a month, or 1 trip to a fast food place a month, or one extra thing at the grocery store a month, or half a movie ticket a month, or half a streaming service a month, or less than half an LLM subscription a month, I could go on for a while.

For the cost, preventing cancer seems like it's a wise investment. I say this as a cancer survivor.

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But it doesn’t prevent cancer. It lowers the risk of a specific kind of cancer by some amount. Is it $650 worth? That’s what I’m stuck on. People just go by vibe and say things like “it’s a good investment” but that’s just coming from I don’t know where.

How much does it really have to prevent one of the most painful and expensive forms of cancer, not just for you but also your family, to justify $7/mo? Not very much, in my book.

Same comment as the one above. There are literally infinite things you can do to reduce your risk of mortality. This would have to be among the best options if those things.

If you have a radon test indicating there's a problem, then it is no longer theoretical. There aren't an infinite number of pressing and known risks.

I think it's a mistake to conflate an infinite number of hypothetical risks with a definite and known risk. It leads to analysis paralysis and FUD. It is not possible to know what, among all of the infinite hypothetical options, is the best to reduce your mortality. So let's focus on the concrete steps we can take and that we do know are effective.

For most people, that is not radon mitigation, because most people don't have a radon problem. If you find out that it is a problem for you, and you have the cash to solve it - just solve it. It's that simple.

I'm just saying, I'm happy to pay for our system at the cost of seven whole dollars in energy cost per month, for my spouse and kids if nothing else.

If in 20 years I find out I got ripped off, I won't really be upset about it.

It’s a risk/reward. For a nominal cost, you essentially eliminate a gas that causes or accelerates lung cancer.

Enjoy one free beer a month, dude. Chances are you won’t develop a vicious cancer.

While your technically correct, you're practically wrong.

Literally, the CDC only mentions two primary sources of lung cancer: smoking and radon. Unless you have an unusual, alternative risk factor, it's practically correct to say eliminating smoking and radon prevent lung cancer.

How I look it is, if I’m aware of the risk and do nothing to mitigate it and then down the road one of my kids who sleeps in the basement develops cancer…

Aren’t we all doing this all the time?

We pay to live further from the toxic waste dump, the motorway or the pylons. We want filtered water. We want clean air. We pay to have nicer, less risky things.

Some locales in the US require testing for radon then mitigating during any home sale. These regulations somewhat change the marginal cost/benefit analysis because the money must be spent eventually.

If you own a home in such a locale, you might as well do any mitigation while living in the house. Otherwise you're not getting any cancer risk reduction for your dollars but you'll still pay those same dollars for the mitigation when you sell the house.

It amuses me but maybe for the exact opposite reason: Phrase it to the median person as "for just a quarter per day" (queue sad music on a commercial) and we'll be worried about everything but the cost because it seems too low to think about. Say "For just 1 of less than 500 such choices you can afford to make in your lifetime" and suddenly we start wondering if it's something that makes the cut.

Of course that's median, most people on HN... probably should just get the system if the Radon levels are high.

I read this 3 times, I have no idea what point you’re trying to make here.

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