Saturday, February 18, 2012

Don't Quit! Win the War on Radon Gas

When I first started speaking with legislators six years ago about the danger of living with high levels of radon gas immediately after my husband Joe died with lung cancer and I discovered we were living with over four times the EPA action level, I discovered that they really didn’t know what radon gas was or what it could do. The legislators and their staffers were not alone, however, because previously I didn’t know either that radon gas is the leading environmental cause of cancer mortality—that it causes the death of 21,000 people each year—that it is throughout our nation or that it can be in any house. Most people in our nation are also ignorant of these facts. Some of our states have been working toward educating the public through various means of communication funded by grants from the EPA; however, their efforts need to be improved and increased. Now much to my amazement and not because people have stopped dying from radon-induced lung cancer by the thousands each year, the EPA has decided to stop funding the state radon programs, to forget about the million people who have died in the last 50 years, and to not be concerned with the education of the citizens of our nation about this silent killer that can be lurking in our homes, schools and workplaces which is invisible, odorless and tasteless. I urge you to join me in educating your state and federal legislators about the importance of protecting their employers (us—the U.S. citizens) about the indoor air pollution of the leading cause of lung cancer in nonsmokers—radon gas. Help prevent EPA from ignoring the deaths of radon-induced lung cancer victims. Help prevent our government from sidestepping their legal, moral and civic responsibility as was stated in the 1988 Indoor Radon Abatement Act.

· Take Action Against Radon—test your home and install a mitigation system if the level if high. · Educate your legislators and encourage federal protection for our citizens · Share your knowledge with family and friends. Befriend www.cansar.org/radontee
Let’s Win the War on Radon-Induced Lung Cancer
Gloria Linnertz, seascape@htc.net

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