Radon Awareness

Irene Shonle

01/11/2007 - When asked in an interview, the average person on the street does not know the second leading cause of lung cancer in the United States. Do you? Perhaps the title of this article gives it away, but it is radon. Based on an updated Assessment of Risk for Radon in Homes, radon in indoor air is estimated to cause about 21,000 lung cancer deaths each year in the United States.

  Radon is a radioactive gas that comes from the breakdown of uranium on its way to becoming lead, a process that takes about 4.5 billion years. Radon gas exhausts naturally from the ground, particularly in regions with granitic soils, and where there are underlying uranium deposits. The region around Central City produced limited amounts of uranium in the 1950s and ‘60s. As you may suspect, Gilpin County is therefore squarely in the zone of potentially high levels of radon. Indeed, tests of a few houses in the area show elevated radon levels. The EPA recommends working towards lowering the radon levels in your home if they are above 4 picocuries/L.

  Most of us are aware of the risks of cancer from smoking, x-rays and radiation. Although all of these cause cancer by different mechanisms, many of us choose to reduce our risk of cancer by reducing our exposure to these elements. Even if you choose to smoke, you should be aware that smoking and radon exposure combine to make the risk of lung cancer much higher. For example, if 1,000 people who never smoked were exposed to 4 picocuries/L over a lifetime, one in seven would develop lung cancer (similar to the risk of dying in a car crash). If 1,000 people who smoke were exposed to the same level, 62 people would develop lung cancer.

  How does radon cause lung cancer? As it decays, it produces decay products, sometimes called "radon daughters" or "radon progeny." Two of these progeny, polonium-218 and polonium-214, decay rapidly themselves, and emit alpha particles. When alpha particles hit an object, the energy in them is absorbed by the surface of the object. If you breathe in alpha particles, they can damage bronchial and lung tissue, and can lead to lung cancer. There are no immediate symptoms from exposure to radon. Lung cancer is the only health effect which has been definitively linked with radon exposure and it typically occurs 5 to 25 years after exposure.

Radon can be found in water

  If you have tested the air in your home and found a radon problem, you may also want to find out whether your water is a concern. Radon in water is usually not a problem in homes served by public water supplies, but problems have been found in well water, especially in areas where there is high radon in the air. However, in most cases, radon entering the home through water will be a small source of risk compared with radon entering from the soil. If you are concerned, contact a lab certified to measure radiation in water to have your water tested.

  There will be a Radon workshop at the Extension Office on January 30th at 6:30 p.m. At this workshop, there will be free radon testing kits available. Cost is $5, including the kit.

  Irene Shonle is the director of the Colorado State University Cooperative Extension in Gilpin County. The Gilpin County Cooperative Extension office is located at the Exhibit Barn, 230 Norton Drive, Golden, CO 80403 (right next to the Gilpin Community Center). Website: www.coopext.colostate.edu/gilpin, phone: 303-582-9106, email: irene.shonle@colostate.edu.

  Colorado State University Cooperative Extension provides unbiased, research-based information about horticulture, natural resources, and 4-H youth development. As part of a nationwide system, Cooperative Extension brings the research and resources of the University to the community—Colorado State University, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and Gilpin County, Cooperating. Colorado State University Cooperative Extension is dedicated to serving all people on an equal and nondiscriminatory basis. No endorsement of products named is intended nor is criticism implied of products not mentioned.