National Plan to Prevent 3,200 Lung Cancer Deaths Announced

LOUISVILLE KY (11/12/2015)(readMedia)-- The American Lung Association has joined three federal departments and eight national organizations to announce a strategy to prevent 3,200 lung cancer deaths by driving change to reduce radon in 5 million high-radon homes, apartments, schools and childcare centers.

The National Radon Action Plan: A Strategy for Saving Lives sets out strategies to drive the changes needed to reduce exposure to radon, a naturally occurring, invisible and odorless gas. Radon is the second-leading cause of lung cancer, and causes an estimated 21,000 lung cancer deaths annually.

"In order to eliminate lung cancer caused by radon, we desperately need to improve the way we protect people indoors. Approximately 42% of all Kentucky homes will test above the EPA action level, meaning that millions of Kentuckians live in homes with levels of radon that can cause lung cancer. In some areas, greater than 65% of all homes will test above the action level. This means that nearly half of our population is exposed daily to toxic levels of radioactive radon," said Heather Wehrheim, Advocacy Director with American Lung Association in Kentucky.

Four key approaches to reduce radon exposure are the focus of the National Radon Action Plan, including 14 specific strategies to achieve them. Strategies target specific approaches to reduce the growing problem of radon exposure. Because it is invisible and odorless, dangerous levels of radon often exist indoors without occupants' knowledge.

What is Radon?

Radon is a radioactive gas that comes from natural processes in the ground. Nearly all soils contain uranium, which naturally decays over time to produce radon gas. Radon seeps up from the soil into the air, concentrating in buildings. While radon gas is the second-leading cause of lung cancer, effective measures do exist to reduce radon indoors, which can prevent radon-caused lung cancer and save lives.

With a focus on reducing exposure to this carcinogen in homes, there is great potential to achieve the long-term goals by making sure radon testing is standard practice in mortgage transactions and that radon reduction measures are part of building codes. . The partners are meeting with groups, including housing finance and building code developers, to put the initial steps in place.

"The Kentucky Radon Program seeks to continue its efforts to educate builders and real estate professionals and grow local coalitions that can adopt new radon policy that requires homes and apartments to be tested for radon," says Clay Hardwick, Kentucky's State Radon Program Coordinator.

Others joining the American Lung Association in committing to put these changes in place are the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and other organizations including the American Association of Radon Scientists and Technologists, the American Society of Home Inspectors, Cancer Survivors Against Radon, the Children's Environmental Health Network, Citizens for Radioactive Radon Reduction, the Conference of Radiation Control Program Directors, the Environmental Law Institute and the National Center for Healthy Housing. The partners welcome others who support these actions to join our effort/endorse the plan.

In 2011, the Federal Radon Action Plan was released and has led to the protection from radon in more than 105,000 multi-family homes that have financing from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, among other measures. However, that 2011 plan focused solely on actions that federal agencies could take, while the new plan broadens the tools to include actions that the private sector and the non-governmental organizations can put in place.

The new National Plan can be found at www.lung.org/radon.