At least half of the homes in Iowa have radon gas levels above the EPA’s action level according to the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services.
“It’s invisible, tasteless and odorless. It works its way through the soil to the surface where it can permeate through gaps in the foundation or insulation of homes and then it becomes entrapped inside of them,” Emmet County Environmental Health Specialist Ben Huntley says.
Radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer in the U.S. “It’s the leading cause of cancer among non-smokers,” Huntley says, “which equates to over 21,000 lung cancer deaths per year due to radon exposure.”
The rate of new cases of lung cancer in Iowa is significantly higher than the national rate. According to the Iowa Cancer Registry, most counties in the United States have stable or declining rates of lung cancer, but in Greene, Clark, Appanoose, Van Buren, and Winnebago Counties in Iowa new lung cancer cases are still rising.
“In Iowa here we are in what EPA calls ‘Zone 1’ for radon which has the highest potential to have a radon level of greater than 4p/CiL,” Huntley says. “p/CiL is a unit of measurement for radioactivity. The higher the number, the higher the radiation.”
Huntley says if your home has high levels of radon, there are systems available to get the gas out. “The primary one would be to use a vent pipe system and a fan,” Huntley says, “which would pull the radon from beneath the house and vent it out through the roof.”
Starting this month — which is National Radon Action Month — the Iowa Department of Human Services and the American Lung Association are offering free radon test kits to Iowa residents while supplies last. Two types of test kits are available.
(By Ed Funston, KILR, Estherville and Radio Iowa’s O. Kay Henderson)