January is National Radon Action Month

1. News you can use

January is National Radon Action Month. 

Why do we care? According to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), "Exposure to radon in the home is responsible for an estimated 20,000 lung cancer deaths each year."

2. Housing questions of the week:

What is radon?

• Radon is a radioactive, cancer-causing gas.
• Radon is an odorless, tasteless, and invisible
• Radon comes from the natural (radioactive) breakdown of uranium in soil, rock and water and gets into the air

How do I know if my home has high radon levels?

• The ONLY way to know if your home has elevated radon levels is to test
• There are many low-cost, reliable radon testing kits on the market
• Radon is measured in picocuries per liter (pCi/L). Any reading higher than 4 pCi/L is considered high

3. Picture of the week: Radon map of Oklahoma

Again, the only way to know if a home has elevated radon levels is to test.

However, the EPA has produced a radon map that indicates the likelihood of having elevated levels. As you can see, for most of Oklahoma, the probability of elevated radon is low (Zone 3). There are a handful of Zone 2 counties. If you'd like to see a bigger map, please visit http://www.epa.gov/radon/pdfs/zonemapcolor.pdf

4. Anything else I can think of...

If you are interest in learning more about radon, I will do a Centra training. Please let me know if you are interested and I will get it scheduled!

 

Leilana Mckindra with Ag Communication is working on a release for National Radon Action month. Since this is time sensitive, I am going to suggest that she send it directly to the media. I hope that this is OK with everyone! She will send it to all of you at the same time.

Thank you!