AARST_Radon_Reporter_Q32022_FINAL

20 | January 2023 POLICYAND STANDARDS Rental Testing Mandate Beginning July 1, 2023, Montgomery County, Maryland will require a radon test result below the EPA action level before leasing a rental dwelling unit located in a basement or otherwise having ground-contact. Also, a landlord who receives notice of radon levels at or above the EPA action level from an existing tenant to initiate a follow-up test in accordance with EPA-recommended standards and, if necessary, mitigate to reduce radon below the EPA action level. The Maryland AARST Chapter, which helped to advance the law, shaped its provision for resolving conflicts between tenant-provided and landlord-provided test results. Montgomery County, the locus of the nation’s only requirement for testing before residential sales, has joined HUD, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Boulder County, Iowa City, and Maine in having requirements for rental properties. Standards Update/Call for Volunteers Hundreds of volunteer members representing key stakeholder groups, including analytical laboratories, federal and state regulators, radon measurement and mitigation contractors, product manufacturers, training organizations, scientists and academia, and environmental consultants, have developed and continue to maintain standards through participation on multiple committees within the AARST Consortium on National Radon Standards. Most ANSI-AARST Standards were revised in 2022. The new versions will be published in January. Standards are on a three-year publication schedule, with the next major publication to occur in 2025. Revisions or addenda can be released in the interim if needed. The MAMF and MALB measurement standards have been combined into one measurement standard for multifamily, schools, commercial and mixed-use buildings, MA-MFLB. The RMS-MF and RMS-LB mitigation standards have been combined into one soil gas mitigation standard for multifamily, schools, commercial and mixed-use buildings (SGM-MFLB). The single-family standards remain separate. The Consortium Bylaws describe how standards committees work, criteria for and how members are nominated. They state that the AARST standards development process shall not be dominated by any single interest category and shall seek to achieve balanced representation of primary stakeholders that are materially affected. No single interest category, as individuals or organization(s), shall constitute more than one-third of a consensus body responsible for the content of any specific standard. New standards committees, for Operation, Maintenance and Monitoring and Mitigation of Radon in Water, have recently started meeting. Existing standards committees for measurement, measurement quality assurance, mitigation, and new construction are being reseated for the 2023-2025 term now. New committee members are always welcome. Anyone interested in participating in a committee should review the bylaws, especially Annex D, Nomination and Approval Procedures for Consortium Committee Members, and Annex H, Code of Conduct before submitting an application. Questions can be directed to RadonStandards@gmail.com. CURRENT ANSI-AARST STANDARDS Subject Building Type One and Two-Family Multifamily, School, Commercial, and Other Mixed-Use Buildings Mitigation SGM-SF: Soil Gas Mitigation for Existing Homes SGM-MFLB: Soil Gas Mitigation Standards for existing Multifamily, School, Commercial, and Mixed-Use Buildings Measurement MAH: Protocol for Conducting Measurements in Homes MA-MFLB: Protocol for Conducting Measurements in Multifamily, School, Commercial, and Mixed-Use Buildings MS-PC: Performance Specs for Instrumentation Systems MS-QA: Quality Assurance for Radon Measurement Systems MW-RN: Protocol for Collection, Transfer and Measurement of Radon in Water New Construction CCAH : New Construction of One- & Two-Family Dwellings RRNC: Rough-In CC-1000: Soil Gas Control Systems in New Construction Multifamily, School, Commercial, and Mixed-Use Buildings