Monday, November 9, 2009

Radon and Lung Cancer--Confident in My Ignorance

We think we know about radon and lung cancer, but do we? Why was I so confident in my ignorance is the question I ask myself very often. In the months prior to my husband’s diagnosis of lung cancer, he mentioned to me that perhaps we should check our home for radon gas. Of course, I didn’t know anything about radon gas, but thought I did. I said that our home was relatively new—only twenty years old—and we had a tight basement. I was confident in my ignorance! Because radon cannot be detected through our senses, the only way to know if this silent killer is intruding into your home is to test. Recognizing what we can’t see, taste or smell is the problem. In the year before his diagnosis, my husband Joe also said to me that he might have cancer. My husband had previously had two triple artery bypasses twenty years apart. Again, I said, you don’t have cancer; you have heart disease. I thought he was just worrying too much. I thought I knew but I didn’t. My husband Joe was a person to take preventive and safe measures. For 27 years he worked and exercised every day, kept a low fat, low cholesterol diet, and didn’t smoke. We had smoke detectors, carbon monoxide detectors, and fire extinguishers in our home; and we didn’t burn candles. Joe only lived six weeks after his diagnosis of lung cancer that had spread to his liver and bones. We had been living with a radon level of 17.6 picocuries per liter of air in our home for 18 years. Knowing the word radon and that it is a gas does not constitute knowledge of the element and its danger. You’ve heard the saying “A little knowledge can be dangerous.” I would change that to “A little knowledge can be deadly.” We, the general public, don’t know the facts. We must replace our limited knowledge with a full base of all the facts on radon. Dr. Bill Field, an American Academic Scholar and Professor in the Department of Occupational and Environmental Health and Department of Epidemiology within the College of Public Health at the University of Iowa, who has recently been appointed to the Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health by President Obama, stated that protracted radon progeny exposure is the seventh leading cause of cancer mortality in the United States and the leading environmental cause of cancer mortality. It is the leading cause of lung cancer deaths among non-smokers. Large and recent studies confirm that radon in homes increases lung cancer risks. Throughout our world up to 18% of the lung cancers can be attributed to indoor radon according to Professor Bill Angell, Chair of the Prevention and Mitigation Working Group of the World Health Organization’s International Radon Project. . Radioactive particles from radon gas are inhaled and attach to the air sacs in the lungs. These particles change the characteristic of the cells to cancer, and those mutated cells divide and multiply. Radon is a radioactive gas that emanates from rocks and soils and tends to concentrate in enclosed spaces like houses. Soil gas infiltration is the most important source of residential radon and is present in every home (except ones on stilts) because of the way our homes are built and designed. The analysis from recent studies in Europe, North America, and Asia indicates that lung cancer risk increases proportionally with increasing radon exposure according to the World Health Organization (WHO). There is no known threshold concentration below which radon is safe. On September 21, 2009 WHO, in view of the latest scientific data, released a reference level of 2.7 picocuries per liter of air (pCi/L) as a minimum level to minimize health hazards due to indoor radon exposure. Radon is easy to measure. Every home needs to be tested for radon because each home has its own individual footprint on the earth. The homeowner cannot rely on the results of surrounding houses in the neighborhood. A short term (3-7 days) and/or long term (3-12 months) test kit can be used. Radon professionals can also perform the test with electronic devices. Test kits can be obtained from the radon hotline at (785) 532-6026 or email at Radon@ksu.edu or Web site: http://www.sosradon.org/. Radon test kits can also be purchased at the local hardware stores. It is easy to protect from radon gas. Addressing radon is important in new construction as well as existing buildings. Radon prevention strategies focus on sealing radon entry routes and using soil depressurization techniques to prevent the gas from entering the home. The cost is very reasonable. “How little it can cost to save a life!” is what I would say to someone who complained about the expense of a radon mitigation system installed by a licensed radon professional. I write this in memory of my husband Joe --who was so very dear to me—my friend, my partner, my companion, my love. I ask you to test your home for radon during this month of November—National Lung Cancer Awareness Month. If your level is above 2.7, spend that little extra money to help save a life. That life may be someone you love. October 22,2009 Gloria Linnertz seascape@htc.net

Monday, January 12, 2009

Facts Presented to the President Concerning Radon by Three of the Leading Radon Scientists in our Nation

Recently Dr. Jay Lubin, National Cancer Institute, Dr. Susan Conrath, US EPA, and Dr. Bill Field, University of Iowa and member of the World Health Organization's International Radon Project, presented invited testimony, including startling statistics, at the President's Cancer Panel gathering in Charleston, SC.

Dr. Lubin stated that studies of residential radon exposure conclusively demonstrate that radon is a human lung carcinogen. He said that these findings raise concerns about lung cancer risk to the general population exposed to relatively low concentrations of airborne radon in their homes. Conclusions have been drawn from the pooling of 11 miner cohort studies that indicated radon attributable lung cancers from residential radon exposure is 10-15 percent in the U.S. Further, in questioning from the President's Cancer Panel, he agreed with Dr. Field that the risk estimates from the large residential pooled analyses, which support the findings from the miner-based studies, are likely underestimates of the true risks.

Dr. Lubin indicated that if homes with radon levels above 2 picocuries per liter of air were mitigated, then about half of the radon-attributable lung cancer deaths could be prevented. Radon is one of the most extensively investigated human lung carcinogen and the diversity and consistency of the information indicates that the weight of evidence for radon carcinogenicity is overwhelming according to Dr. Lubin.

Dr. Bill Field, a Professor of Public Health and member of the World Health Organization's International Radon Project, indicated that most of the radon-induced lung cancers occur below the U.S. EPA's radon action level. In fact, a study published in the British Medical Journal by Sarah Darby and colleagues at the University of Oxford said that government protection policies focus mainly on the homes with high radon levels and neglect the 95 percent of deaths linked to lower levels of radon. Colleagues at the University of Oxford agree that installing basic and inexpensive measures to prevent radon in all new homes would be more cost-effective and have greater potential for reducing lung cancer deaths caused by radon.

In his testimony to the President's Cancer Panel, Dr. Field stated that comparative human health-based risk assessment performed by the U.S. EPA and numerous stated agencies have consistently ranked radon among the most important environment health risks facing the nation. According to the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis study in 1998, radon was judged the number one health risk in the home. He indicated the time for more aggressive action to battle this deadly killer has long passed and pointed out that in the last half century alone, one million people have died from radon exposure in the United States.

According to the EPA's 2008 Office of Inspector General Report, of the 76.1 million existing single family homes in the United States in 2005, only about 2.1 million had radon-reducing features in place. Indoor radon exposure continues to grow in the workplace, single-family homes, and rental properties; however, the United States is a nation that protects her citizens from harm just as was done with the lead-based paint act.

(I ask our state and federal governments to protect us from this Silent Killer--Radon.)--Gloria Linnertz

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