Radon awareness still a challenge
By Jill Coley
Ten experts presented their lives' work to the President's Cancer Panel on Thursday in Charleston, the third of four such public meetings held across the country.
Environmental factors in cancer was this year's panel topic. Presenters strode broadly among pollutants found in the ground, air, water and products we use daily.
Panelists, who listened to the presenters and asked questions, are appointed by and report to the president. Several presenters spoke on radon, a cancer-causing radioactive gas that has largely slipped out of the public's awareness.
More info
To read past reports by the President's Cancer Panel, visit pcp.cancer.gov.
To order a free radon test kit for your home, visit scdhec.net or call S.C. Toll Free Radon Hotline at 1-800-768-0362.
Radon is a colorless, odorless gas that occurs naturally in the earth and can be trapped in structures. When people breathe radon, the radioactive gas decays in their lungs, shedding particles that can trigger cancer.
Between 16,000 and 23,000 people are estimated to die annually from lung cancer caused by radon. Between 10 percent and 14 percent of all lung cancer deaths per year may be attributable to radon, said Dr. Jay H. Lubin with the National Cancer Institute.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has set an action level for radon of 4 picocuries per liter of air. But that action level is meaningless, several presenters argued. No level of radon is safe, and any action taken to fix a house polluted with radon is voluntary.
New construction can be made radon-resistant and remediation measures for older structures exist, but both are the responsibility of owners. Requiring testing during real estate transactions was suggested by the EPA's Capt. Susan M. Conrath.
Lubin said the burden should not be personal. "We're asking a few to bear a societal burden for all mitigation," he said. Relying on buyers also does nothing to solve the problem of radon in schools and other municipal structures.
The housing boom has created even more houses at risk for radon, said Dr. William Field, professor of occupational and environmental health at the College of Public Health at University of Iowa. Field said the U.S. is worse off now than a decade ago in terms of radon exposure.
While radon is linked to certain geologic features, such as uranium and phosphate, there are no regions of the country considered free of the gas. In South Carolina, "Just about every county has seen some elevated results," said Reginald Massey, former radon contact for the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control.
President's Cancer Panel member Dr. Margaret L. Kripke, from The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, described radon exposure as a public health failure. "Who's responsible for getting the message out?" she asked.
Conrath, of the EPA, took responsibility for awareness efforts, but presenters said voluntary efforts are not enough.
During a public comment period, Dr. James B. Burch, an epidemiologist at the Arnold School of Public Health, urged the panel for a national radon standard that is enforceable.
HIGHLIGHTS
More highlights from the President's Cancer Panel meeting:
— Cancer risk from air pollution, not including diesel and fine particulate matter, is poorly understood but likely negligible, said Dr. William L. Chameides, dean of the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University.
— Not enough is known about risks associated with new, emerging pollutants, such as fire retardants and nanoparticles, which are found in new products such as "wrinkle-free" clothes, he said.
— Also alarming is the concentration of diesel fumes on school buses, he said, and the largely unknown effects of endocrine disrupters, which mimic hormones and are found in plastics and pesticides.
— In water, high levels of arsenic, greater than 100 micrograms per liter, can cause cancer. Levels these high are rarely found in the United States, except for private wells in areas scattered across the country, according to Dr. Kenneth P. Cantor, senior investigator with the National Cancer Institute. More studies need to be done to assess the risk of low levels of arsenic.
— While disinfection of water is one of the great success stories of public health, disinfection byproducts have been linked to bladder cancer, Cantor reported. These chemicals are generally elevated in water systems that use treated surface water sources.
— Environmental factors that may increase risk for breast cancer were also examined by two presenters. A higher risk was noted in women who live with a smoker and those who eat grilled or smoked meat, said Dr. Marilie D. Gammon, professor of epidemiology at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
— Dr. Julia G. Brody, executive director of the Silent Spring Institute, drew attention to breast cancer risk and ubiquitous endocrine disrupting chemicals, including PCBs used in caulking, paint, flame retardants, electronics, furniture, sunscreen and plastics.
Reach Jill Coley at 937-5719 or jcoley@postandcourier.com.
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Comments
majorjohnson (anonymous) says...
My gosh, is there nothing that it's not the governments responsibility to do? Watch your wallets folks, these people are going to press for measures that will increase the costs of housing, then some other group will scream about how housing costs are too high (because of those greedy developers of course), then the government will insist that people be given loans regardless of their ability to pay so they too can afford a home...
December 5, 2008 at 7:58 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
JoeArmstrong (anonymous) says...
People really need to get informed. Over 20,000 people die each year from radon exposure. You would not believe how angry people get when they buy a new house and it tests high for radon. Now they have to spend $1,500 when it would have cost less than $400 to put a system in during construction. At the meeting they said these systems reduce moisture in lower floors and prevents soil gas from entering the home too.
I thank the President's Cancer Panel for choosing our hometown for this meeting, they could have chosen any place in the United States.
Also, thank you for the informative article.
Check out the EPA site - search radon and epa.
December 5, 2008 at 9:36 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
majorjohnson (anonymous) says...
How about they open the freaking windows? If someone wants to pay for some $1,500 system so they can live in their air conditioning let them, or have them work with the developer, or just don't buy the danged house (you can check for radon before you buy the danged house you know).
This is a total crock of government crap. It's not information people are lacking, it's government nanny care they desire, generally either at someone elses expense or for their own financial benefit. You can't even disinfect water without the government having to step in and say it's bad for you and you have to pay even more for your water. Instead of open your windows so radon doesn't collect, they got a government mandate to increase the cost of your house...This is the same government that mandated a smaller resevoir for my toilet, so I have to flush twice to get the crap down the freaking pipes.
December 5, 2008 at 11:04 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
JoeArmstrong (anonymous) says...
Please eveyone - take the time to educate yourself. If you get lung cancer, you will likely die within a year. Ask these people if they had to do it over again, would they reduce the radon in their home - http://www.cansar.org/
Your life may depend on it.
December 5, 2008 at 11:26 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
seascape (anonymous) says...
Thank you Jill for writing the article on the President's Cancer Panel. I wasn't able to attend but wish that I could have and that all of the state legislators and U.S. senators and representatives could have also been in attendance. I am well aware of the expertise of Dr. Bill Field, Dr. Jay Lubin and Capt.Susan Conrath.
Radon-induced lung cancer is entirely preventable. If my husband and I had known that for $1,000 we could have removed up to 99% of the radon in our home we would have. We didn't know that 21,000 people lose their lives to radon-induced lung cancer; we didn't know that there are well over 10 million homes with high levels of radon in our nation; we didn't know that high radon levels can be in any type of home--brick, frame, old, new, with basement or no basement.
The fact is we had been living in our home for 18 years with over four times the EPA action level of radon. There were no laws protecting us from this silent killer--radon. Radon cannot be seen or tasted and it has no odor. The only way to know if you are living with high levels is to test for it. My husband, Joe, died with lung cancer on February 8, 2006. What is the price of life? Why didn't we know? Why were there no laws? How could this happen?
The seat-belt laws in our nation have saved thousands of lives. James Baldwin said, "Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced." Our governments--state and federal--need to face the fact that radon gas is present in every state and that it causes lung cancer and kills people.
I urge your readers to petition their state and federal representatives and senators to create laws that will protect the citizens of our nation against radon. Laws requiring the testing of schools, mandating radon tests at the point of sale of a home or before taking occupancy of a new home, and specifying that landlords test property and mitigate if high levels of radon are found will save thousands of lives.
Lung cancer victims have only a 15% five-year survival rate, but the reality is that most are diagnosed at a late stage on only live a few months or weeks. So there are not many lung cancer advocates. Please go to www.cansar.org and read the words and see the faces of some of those who were diagnosed with lung cancer and were living with high levels of radon.
Public radon policy has been a failure for the last twenty years. A change must be made and it remains to us to make the change happen because there are not thousands of lung cancer victims making marches. The fact is they are no longer with us. We must make a difference and let our voices be heard loudly for them!
Thanks for the article,
Gloria Linnertz
seascape@htc.net
December 6, 2008 at 12:39 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
majorjohnson (anonymous) says...
For free you could have opened your windows. You could have paid someone to do radon testing. Why should there be laws protecting you from your own bad habits of locking yourselves inside and closing all of your doors and windows to breath the same air over and over. If you didn't get lung cancer from radon you'd be blaming it on exhaust from passing cars, or the material your clothes were made of, or the chlorine in your water. Frankly, I'm not interested in paying more taxes to save you from your bad decisions. I've know about radon for years, and if you don't it's not because it's some hidden secret, it's because you haven't paid attention. Why should I have to pay more taxes because you prefer to watch american idle instead of reading the news?
December 6, 2008 at 3:56 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
seascape (anonymous) says...
I hope you have tested your home for radon and if the level was over 4.0 picocuries per liter of air, you had it mitigated. Do you live with all your doors and windows open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 12 months a year? It only takes 12 hours for radon levels to resume the orginial level once the doors and windows are closed. I'm glad you are so well informed about radon. Illinois passed the Radon Awareness Act last year and no one's taxes have been raised because of it. On the contrary, many people have tested their homes as a result and homes have been mitigated and I would venture to save that some lives have been saved as a result. Radon-induced lung cancer takes the lives of 1,160 people in Illinois each year. Have a merry Christmas and a safe one.
December 6, 2008 at 10:08 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
majorjohnson (anonymous) says...
The law merely requires purchaser be given a copy of testing guidlines and a form in which the realtor states he has no knowledge of the radon levels. It doesn't require testing, and so far the amount of testing being performed hasn't spiked in Illinois, so there's little evidence it's done a thing.
As far as my home, yes, the bathroom and bedroom windows are open at all times, even in the winter. The doors are open daily also except in the coldest weather, and my crawl space is ventilated. I don't use air conditioning and only heat one room. There's no evidence that occasional exposure to radon, such as in the winter months, causes any cancer risk. The risk is from living in your "conditioned" home year round. It not only exposes you to risk from radon, but increased risk of asthma.
December 8, 2008 at 8:31 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
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