Stiffer Radon testing Paramiters Coming?

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Model radon code proposed
Link to lung cancer prompts standard for new construction
By Jane Andrews

BELFAST — Mounting evidence that radon gas causes lung cancer has prompted lawmakers to action.

The legislature is considering a bill to set up a model radon standard for new residential construction. If approved, it would allow communities to adopt the radon gas standard as a local option similar to the Maine Model Building Code.

Since radon gas was determined to be a carcinogen, health officials say there is no safe level, but federal and state guidelines have been set that encourage homeowners to consider reducing radon gas levels if they fall between 2 and 4 picocuries per liter. Action is urged if they rise above 4 pCi/L, he said.

Stillwell said 51 percent of the homes tested in Waldo County are over the 2 pCi/L guidelines and 22 percent of them are above the 4 pCi/L limit at which action is recommended to get rid of the radon gas.

Statewide, 54 percent of homes are over 2 pCi/L and 30 percent are above the 4 pCi/L action level, according to Andrew Smith, state toxicologist.

Radon is a colorless, odorless, radioactive gas that results from the breakdown of uranium in the soil or rock on which houses are built, according to Tom Weddell, a state hydro geologist.

It seeps into structures through dirt floors, cracks and pores in concrete walls and floors, floor drains and sump pumps. It also exists in water, he said.

Epidemiological studies done in the United States, Europe and China made the evidence very clear that radon gas is the second biggest cause of lung cancer after smoking, Smith said. Radon is also considered the leading cause of lung cancer for non-smokers.

Smith said guidelines for cancer causing chemicals in air or water are often set to allow no more than a 1 in 100,000 to 1 in a million increased risk of cancer. In contrast, the radon risk is close to 1 in 100 in homes that exceed the 4 pCi/L level, while at 2 pCi/L, the risk is about 1 in 1,000.

Several groups worked together to urge the legislature’s Natural Resources Committee to adopt a model radon code for use during construction of new residential properties: the Maine Indoor Air Quality Council, the American Lung Association and the state Department of Health and Human Services.

The result was LD 109, sponsored by Rep. Ted Koffman, D-Bar Harbor, who is the House chairman of the Natural Resources Committee, and prime sponsor of the proposed legislation. There are nine co-sponsors, all Democrats, including Sen. John Martin, D-Aroostook, Senate chairman of the committee.

Koffman said the committee will soon hold a work session on the bill and action could come in the spring.

He first became involved a number of years ago when working with former Gov. Angus King on the Maine Environmental Priorities Project that ranked threats to health, the environment and quality of life of a range of issues.

“Indoor air pollution looked very ho-hum to people back then,” he said.

Since then, studies done all over the world have made it clear that radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer after smoking and it may have a magnifying effect, with radon gas adding to the smoke risk for contracting lung cancer, Koffman said.

Nationally, there are 163,000 lung cancer deaths per year and 21,000 of those are considered radon related, according to Smith, the state toxicologist.

In Maine there are about 1,000 lung cancer deaths per year and an estimated 140 to 150 of those deaths are assumed to be related to radon gas, Smith said.

The solution to high levels of radon gas sounds simple, but may unnerve homeowners.

Intercept the radon gas before it gets into the home, running a pipe from underneath the house up through the roof where it disperses, Smith said. Adding a fan will conduct the gas upward quickly.

Stilwell said a second set of figures are available for radon in water but are less solid than the radon air statistics.

Maine radon in water averages 5,000 to 10,000 pCi/L, figures that are above the national average, he said. That is above the standard exposure guideline of 4,000 pCi/L.

Waldo County figures are 7,000 pCi/L in water, but Stilwell said the health risk isn’t as dangerous as radon in air and is due to the release of radon gas in the shower or from running the faucet.

He calculates the risk at 2 pCi/L in air, being equivalent to 20,000 pCi/L in water. He said 10,000 pCi/L in water adds less than 1 pCi/L to air.

Stilwell said to get rid of radon in water, a homeowner can have an aeration system installed in a water tank to release the radon gas from the water.

Maine has taken actions to reduce the standard of allowable Radon levels in a home ... It is my opinion that this will become the standard for the USA .... the question remains how much time will it take for the rest of the country to wake up.