The Laws of the Averages

On your report you will see references to three averages, the Overall Average, the DNS Average, and the EPA Protocol Average. The DNS average and the EPA Protocol Averages are the same. The reason for the different terms is that the monitors are programmed for use nationwide and use the EPA terms and in Illinois, we discuss results in the context of Illinois's rules and regulations. The Illinois Emergency Management Agency (IEMA) Division of Nuclear Safety (DNS) Radon Program oversees the radon industry in Illinois, hence the DNS Average.

Now that we have our terms straight:

The Overall Average is the average of all of the hours of data.

The EPA Protocol or DNS Average removes the first four hours of data from the calculation. This is done to ensure that data used to calculate the average is data gathered from air in the home, not air the monitor was exposed at a previous site or in transit.

That wasn't so bad, was it?