2023 ANSI/AARST Soil Gas and Radon Standards Released
With thanks to the leadership of the AARST Consortium on National Standards, American Association of Radon Scientists and Technologists (AARST) is releasing the 2023 versions of eight ANSI/AARST Standards. These standards have been revised by their respective all-volunteer committees to, for example, include changes recommended by subject matter experts, make edits necessary to increase clarity, and achieve harmonization across standards. Although the 2023 standards have an effective date of December 1, 2023, they are available on the Consortium website and recommended for immediate use.
Consolidations. Two pairs of previously existing standards were consolidated from four to two standards. The standards for measurement of radon in multifamily buildings and in schools and other large buildings, MAMF and MALB, have been merged into the standard titled MA-MFLB 2023 Protocol for Conducting Measurements in Multifamily, School, Commercial, and Mixed-Use Buildings. The standards for mitigation in multifamily buildings and in schools and other large buildings, RMS-MF and RMS-LB, were combined into SGM-MFLB 2023 Soil Gas Mitigation Standards for existing Multifamily, School, Commercial, and Mixed-Use Buildings.
New versions of six other standards are also now available:
- MAH 2023 Protocol for Conducting Measurements in Homes
- MS-QA 2023 Quality Assurance for Radon Measurement Systems
- SGM-SF 2023 Soil Gas Mitigation for Existing Homes
- CCAH 2020 Rev.5/23 New Construction of One- & Two-Family Dwellings
- RRNC 2020 Rev.10/22 Rough-In of Radon Control Components in New Construction
- CC-1000 2018 Rev.5/23 Soil Gas Control Systems in New Construction Multifamily, School, Commercial, and Mixed-Use Buildings
Soil gas mitigation/control. Consistent with the prior change to the single-family mitigation standard from RMS-SF to SGM-SF, the large building standards for mitigation and new construction were retitled “Soil Gas” to reflect the reality that numerous activities that apply to controlling radon apply to the intrusion of chemical vapor contaminants. As in SGM-SF, a radon mitigation project is not mandated to achieve mitigation of other soil gas unless the scope of work specified the other soil gases, although this result may be a corollary benefit of the mitigation.
NEW! AARST member benefit. With the release of the 2023 standards, AARST is now providing association members with free access to current and previous standards in both licensed PDF format and searchable flipbook format. AARST members will be able to access these versions whenever they are logged in to the MY ACCOUNT section of the website at the Standards Library.
Members of the public will continue to have free access to non-searchable flipbooks as well as to purchase PDF versions at standards.aarst.org
Earlier versions. Because some states have adopted a previous version of standards, these are also still available to view and for purchase.
Volunteers Needed for Standards Committees
The AARST Consortium needs volunteers for the next round of standard development. Plans for 2024 include two new publications and completion of additional revisions of the current ten standards to be published in 2025. All such work is subject to public review. There are openings on the committees developing new standards for Mitigation of Radon in Water and (SG-OM&M) Long-Term Stewardship of Radon and Soil Gas Hazards. The Consortium will soon begin the process of repopulating all “standing” committees with a combination of new and existing participants for work that will commence in 2023. These include the Radon Measurement, Soil Gas Mitigation, Radon Measurement QA, and Radon Measurement/Mitigation for Water. Descriptions of these committees and participation can be found here. To submit your name or others in nomination for committees, click here.
BACKGROUND – ANSI/AARST STANDARDS
ANSI-Accredited. AARST is accredited by the American National Standards Institute to administer the AARST Consortium on National Standards. ANSI is the organization in the United States that oversees and accredits the development of many industry consensus standards. Accreditation is an ongoing process of oversight that involves ongoing audits by ANSI to ensure that the consensus process is adhered to and continuously improved. It is arduous work to obtain and maintain ANSI accreditation, and a major achievement to be accredited as a standards Development organization. Not all radon standards have been developed or maintained following this rigorous and transparent process.
About the Consortium. The mission of the Association’s standards consortium, the AARST Consortium on National Standards is to establish and maintain a continuous consensus process for writing and amending voluntary standards to ensure that all resulting standards are technically proficient and functionally viable in a manner to achieve universal acceptance and utilization in the United States. Incumbent upon this mission is a duty to seek a consensus process that is balanced, open, and capable of addressing standards in a timely manner. The goal and process in writing standards conforms with applicable US law and Congress’ intent that federal agencies recognize industry standards when they are created using a consensus process. Extensive deliberations by volunteers in consortium committees (buoyed by constructive comments during public review periods) have built ten ANSI-AARST Standards developed and maintained by the AARST Consortium on National Standards. The standards process has been and remains independent of the AARST Board.
History. Twenty-two years ago, AARST took the initial steps to begin writing radon standards using the consensus process involving and recognizing the contributions made by various types of key stakeholders, including consumer groups, other affected professions, and industries as well as state and federal agencies. Until 2001, the fledgling radon profession in the United States relied on initial measurement protocols and a radon mitigation standard developed by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to initiate the foundation and development of radon standards. EPA standards were poised to anchor EPA’s Congressionally mandated credentialing of radon professionals to address the newly recognized environmental threat of low-level ionizing radiation in homes and other buildings. That infrastructure began to change when EPA’s federal radon proficiency program was discontinued, and the private sector and many states took a front seat in professional radon credentialing.