The Florida Department of Health regulations require mandatory testing in early education centers, schools, and some 24-hour care facilities (including nursing homes, assisted living facilities and hospitals). The Florida Radon Program has encouraged these facilities through outreach about testing requirements. Significant increases in testing for facilities has resulted.
The Program provides an online database that allows searching for facility types by county. Some data can be selected by city also. Sixteen types of facilities have data included in the search capabilities.
Radon testing is required for all public and private school buildings or school sites housing students in kindergarten through grade 12; all state-owned, state-operated, state-regulated, or state-licensed 24-hour care facilities; and all state-licensed day care centers for children or minors, based on their county, according to this map at https://www.floridahealth.gov/environmental-health/radon/maps/index.html. This requirement is the same for all buildings in facilities required to be tested for radon per Florida Statute 404.056. Currently all buildings in a facility that are used by the clients of the facility are required to be tested twice, five years apart. Once tested twice, testing is no longer required unless one of the triggering events occurs:
1) a building is subject to significant structural renovation or a change in facility operation equivalent to a building structural change, or 2) the facility legally becomes a new facility. Examples of a legally new facility would be the issuance of a new license, or there could be a change in ownership or operator. If a facility operator failed to complete the required testing in any building by the time it was due, the testing should be completed as soon as is practical.
Through these outreach efforts and mandatory requirements, Florida has seen an increase in buildings tested.
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