Three Major Concerns Home Owners In The Riviera Maya Can Forget About · Bye Bye Radon, Lead or Asbestos!

Living in a healthy environment while enjoying the comfort of modern housing has become a matter of constant studying in the past decades. You've most likely heard of these three dangerous contaminants that can reach alarming levels inside people's houses under certain conditions: radon gas, asbestos and lead. They have been the subject of many home inspection reports describing their effects on quality of life. According to most studies, they can all become carcinogenic when reaching critical levels.

What is Radon?

It’s a colorless, odorless, tasteless and, most important, radioactive gas. It’s a normal byproduct of the radioactive decay chain. Radon is released when Uranium and Thorium (two naturally occurring radioactive metals found deep into the ground) slowly decay into lead. They have been around ever since the earth has formed and their naturally occurring isotopes have very long half-lives, about billions of years. That means they will be around for quite some time. As radon gas decays, it forms polonium-218 and 214, lead-214 and bismuth-214. They are all short-lived radioactive isotopes that, unlike radon gas itself, have the ability to stick to solid surfaces like dust particles. Scientific research has shown that if contaminated dust is inhaled, such particles can reach the airways of the lung and increase the risk of developing cancer.

Radon gas is VERY dense. In other words, it's heavy; therefore has a tendency to accumulate in low areas - like basements and crawl spaces. Here's how radon finds it's way into a house:

Radon is not a concern in the Yucatan Peninsula. Why is that? First of all uranium concentrations are extremely low, as shown in the following map:

It is well known that Mexico is the country with the largest reserves of uranium in the World, so it's very likely that Mexico is the country that receives most solar radiation on the planet, but the map below confirms us that we don't have to worry about it if we live in Quintana Roo or Yucatan - actually the whole Eastern part of Mexico looks good on this map:

Second, the Yucatan Peninsula is made of rock - you can consider yourself lucky if you dig a hole and don’t reach the bedrock in about 1 meter. That means no house here has a basement where radon gas could accumulate, and even so, it could never reach a concerning level. Third, we are living in the Caribbean, perfect insulation is an unknown concept in the area, there will always be air coming in and out of a house.

Asbestos and Insulation

Asbestos is a very good and cheap insulator, that is why in the 60's and 70's it has been widely used for home insulation. Awareness of its effects on health started growing in the 80´s, until it was banned. Prolonged exposure to asbestos dust has been proven to lead to lung cancer.

The Mexican Caribbean was nothing else but pure jungle some 30 years ago. Most buildings have been constructed after the health hazards of asbestos have been documented. Besides, insulating homes is not common building practice in the area, most buildings are made of cinder block and concrete, chances of asbestos contamination are close to zero. This picture shows house components that may contain asbestos:

None of the above materials and building techniques apply to the Riviera Maya.

Lead Exposure

Overexposure to lead is known to cause lead-poisoning. In 1978 the US Federal Government has banned the use of lead based paints for this reason.

The fact that the development of real estate started rather late proves to be an advantage, as by the time the building boom started lead based paint was banned almost world-wide. All water connections are made using plastic (more recently) or copper pipes (in the past). Lead pipes are unheard of in the area.

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