Dangerous Radon Problems Can Be Fixed

The radioactive gas, which comes from uranium in granite, is common in Maine homes.

by Martin McKenna
Contributor to the Portland Press Herald

© 1998 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.
This story first appeared in the Portland Press Herald on November 27, 1998.

At left: Claire Allen shows some of the pipes, pumps, and storage tanks used in a water aeration system to remove radon gas from her home's water supply. John Ewing photo

Keith Allen bought his house in Poland knowing nothing about radon, a naturally occurring radioactive gas that seeps through foundations or bubbles up in tap water from wells. But after he read an article on the subject, he bought an inexpensive air test kit for his basement and was alarmed at the results.

"What we had in the air was the equivalent of smoking two packs of cigarettes a day," he said.

Though radon is a Class A carcinogen that the National Academy of Sciences estimates kills as many as 20,000 people a year through lung cancer, no Maine law requires a test for it.

"Most people don't worry about it because there's no law that says you have to fix it," said Bob Stillwell, who is in charge of radon and indoor air for Maine's Radiation Control Program.

Yet the Harvard University Center for Risk Analysis in April ranked radon exposure as the No. 1 fatal risk in homes when compared to other potentially lethal hazards that include poisoning, firearms, fires and falls.
Allen responded to his test results by installing a carbon air filter in his basement. He had seen the filter advertised in a newspaper. Later tests showed the filter had done nothing to lower the level of radon in his house.
"It really wasn't taking the radon out of our house, it was just storing it," Allen said.

Allen's test showed 20 picocuries per liter (pCiL) of radon in his basement's air. That's just 20 trillionths of a curie, but five times the level the Environmental Protection Agency recommends as a benchmark for action.
There is no safe level of radon, said Stillwell, because it is a radionuclide, an element that breaks down into electrically charged particles that attach to dust. When that airborne dust is inhaled, the radon "progeny" lodge in the lungs. The particles emit alpha waves, which can damage cells, and are one step in a chain of events that can lead to cancer, especially in the lungs of smokers.

The National Safety Council's Environmental Health Center reported in February that lung cancer caused by radon kills between 15,400 and 21,800 people a year. Since smoking and radon both cause cancer, it is difficult to disentangle the two. The center's report estimated that among non-smokers, between 2,100 and 2,900 lung cancer deaths were attributable to radon.

Reducing the level of radon gas in a home below 4 pCiLs is technically achievable, hence the standard, Stillwell said, even if it is no guarantee of safety. There is no escape from radon, which is present at .4 pCiL in outdoor air. Radon comes from the uranium that has been in granite since it was formed.

High levels of radon exist everywhere in Maine, Stillwell said. In one Windham neighborhood, all the houses were found to have roughly 100 pCiLs.

"Radon levels of 16 pCils would cause an underground mine to be evacuated," said Stillwell. As a rule, about one in three or four Maine homes has a level of radon that should be reduced, he said.
Stillwell's data come from the results of the 1,200 to 2,000 radon test results he receives yearly from laboratories, which are required to report to the state. Test kits, which cost from $10 to $40, can be purchased at hardware stores or directly from the National Safety Council for $9.95, which includes lab analysis and return postage (call 1-800-557-2366 or visit its web site at www.nsc.org/ehc/radon/coupon.htm).

Real estate sales are the source of most of the radon data Stillwell sees. No test is required in a property transaction, but if one has been taken, the Maine Real Estate Commission requires the results to be revealed to the buyer. Sometimes a high radon level will kill a real estate deal, but often people shrug it off, Stillwell said.

At right: Keith and Claire Allen, of Poland, invested a lot of money to solve a serious radon gas problem at their home. Keith checks a gauge on a sub-slab depressurizing system that removes the dangerous gas from beneath his house. John Ewing photo

Mike Gelberg, a partner in Air & Water Quality Inc. of Windham, a firm that teaches EPA-required courses on radon mitigation and installs mitigation systems, said many people are unconcerned about high radon levels. Yet if he tells people they have high levels of arsenic in their tap water, they'll stop drinking it, he said. Both substances are equally dangerous carcinogens.

When Keith Allen discovered that his carbon filter wasn't reducing radon levels, he called Air & Water Quality. Gelberg showed up with a geiger counter, which detected radioactivity in the filter and in the air. Gelberg also tested Allen's well water, which had 60,000 picocuries per liter, three times the level that Maine recommends for mitigation action.
There is no federal standard, but one is expected by 2000 and is likely to be a lower level than Maine's suggested level of 20,000 pCiL, Gelberg said. Radon in water is dangerous when it is released into the air through aeration, such as in a shower.

Though many people believe that radon can be blocked from entering a basement with patched cracks and covered sump holes, those fixes won't work, said Gelberg.

"You can't seal it out," Gelberg said. Radon passes through concrete and is literally sucked from the soil into a house by negative pressure from upstairs, especially during winter months when houses are shut up tight.
Allen learned that he would need a subslab depressurization system to reduce radon in the air. The cost: $1,200. Gelberg installed a pipe beneath the basement floor that ran up into the attic, where a suction fan vented it into the air above the house, where it could disperse safely. The idea is not so much to vent the gas as to create a vacuum under the slab, Gelberg said.

To fix the water problem, Gelberg installed an aeration system, which cost Allen nearly $5,000. Water coming into the house is sprayed into a 60-gallon rubber cannister, where gas released from the water is sucked out and vented outdoors.
Allen said he is happy with the results, despite the cost. His air now measures less than 2 picocuries per liter and the water is about 60. "It beats dying of lung cancer," he said.

Martin McKenna is a free-lance writer who lives in Brunswick.