Glad you asked

Saturday, June 9, 2007 2:12 AM CDT

Today's Logo

Heather Petrowsky, a 10-year-old from Racine, created today's relaxing, tropical logo. Thanks, Heather!

GYA Trivia

How many convicts were in Wisconsin state prisons in 1853? See the answer below.

A question from a Journal Times reader: "I have a question about radon. I heard that it could be a problem in western Racine County. Is that part of the home inspection? What does it cost? Who would do it? Should it be done before you decide to purchase a home?"

GYA Writer Heather Rayne Geyer answered this question:

I spoke with Paul Tellier with Waukesha County Environmental Health Services for this answer.

Radon is a gas that comes from our soil - and can be dangerous - especially in homes. Exposure to high levels of radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer following smoking.

There are several reasons a home might have high levels of radon. Because the gas comes up from the ground, whenever air escapes from the home (from a fireplace, bathroom exhaust, dryer vent, etc.) it creates sort of a vacuum that sucks radon gases into the home. If your home does have high radon levels, you can install a sub-slab depressurization unit, which costs in the range of $1,000 to $2,000.

Wisconsin does not require radon testing, though some states do, including Illinois and Iowa.

Tellier said everyone should have their house tested, whether it is a new home you are buying or the one you live in now. You can purchase short-term Radon Test Kits for about $10 at local hardware stores or online. If you register higher than a 4 on one of those tests, then it is recommended that you receive an Alpha Track Kit, which tests your home for one year.

There are several ways to receive additional information on radon, including:

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Call 1-800-Low-Radon - you'll get plenty of information and can even order testing kits for your home.

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Visit the Web site -

http://www.lowradon.org.

This site gives you every piece of info you can imagine from testing options to contractors to ZIP code statistics.

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Send a blank e-mail to

radon@waukeshacounty.gov.

You will then receive an auto-reply e-mail with all of the links you will need to find out everything you need to know.

To answer the reader's specific questions:

Is radon a problem in Western Racine? According to

http://www.lowradon.org,

240 homes were tested last year in area code 53405. Of those homes, 90 registered higher than a 4 reading (the recommended action level is between 4 and 8). Twenty-five of those homes were higher than 10. And one home was as high as 101.

Is a radon test part of a home inspection? No. You have to specifically ask for it and it will cost more. Some home inspectors do it or you can get a separate contractor for that.

What does it cost? To have it done professionally, it could range from $100-$300, from what I have found.

Should it be done before you purchase a home? Yes. Always.

Thanks, Heather!

In school why does the grading scale go from A to B to D to D and then skip E to F? Also, what do those letters stand for?

Greta Ilieve, a high school intern from The Prairie School, answered this question. Here's what she found:

According to

http://www.k12academics.com,

the letter E is typically omitted from the grading scale because, for a long time, it stood for "Excellent." Another reason why it is not used very often is because the letter "F" can easily be turned into an "E" by adding an extra line on the bottom, thereby falsely improving the score. However, some educational institutions in the U.S. still choose to use the letter "E" instead of "F" for failure. According to an article at

http://www.washingtonpost.com,

the first letter grade to be given in the United States was a "B" received by a Harvard University undergraduate in 1883. As education expanded in America and new colleges were founded, most educational facilities developed their own letter-grading scale. Today, most high schools and universities in the U.S. have standardized to use the following grading system: A: 90-100 percent; B: 80-89 percent; C: 70-79 percent; D: 60-69 percent; F: 59-0 percent.

Thanks, Greta!

Trivia Answer

64. Source: Wisconsin Blue Book.

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