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Nadine Wimmer ReportingThousands of Utahns live in a home with a silent stalker known as radon. The state has sounded a warning for years, but few of us are listening.
The state estimates one in three Utah homes has too much radon. State regulators tell us they don't understand why more of us don't take it seriously. There's no warning sign, no way to see which home poses a danger. But it's there, silently seeping into the homes of unsuspecting families
Valorie Gillespie, Sandy: "All my children grew up in those bedrooms. We've been here 20 years, so that's a bit disconcerting."
Valorie Gillespie has armed her home with fire detectors in every room, a carbon monoxide detector, and water purification systems. But when our tests showed her home had high radon levels...
Valorie Gillespie: "I went to the internet to figure out what it was."
Radon is a breakdown product of uranium in the ground that seeps into our basements. We breathe it into our lungs and, over time, the trapped particles cause lung cancer.
Dr. Wallace Akerley, Huntsman Cancer Inst.: "If you talk to people, everyone will tell you smoking is the reason for lung cancer, but the number two reason is radon."
Even in Utah where smoking rates are low, lung cancer is the number one cancer killer. It beats colon, breast and prostate cancers. Last year, 440 Utahns died from lung cancer.
We put radon test kits in Utah homes from Beaver to Provo, Bluffdale to Sandy, North Salt Lake to Ogden. The EPA recommends radon stay below 4 picoCuries per liter. Our home in Sandy, for example, measured 5.2. A home in Centerville measured 6.7 The home in Beaver measured a whopping 75.9.
The EPA likens this exposure to radiation to getting nearly 20-thousand chest x-rays per year.
Ray Terry, Beaver: "It's heightened my awareness on the issue. I'm not panicked over it, we just need to address it."
Beaver, Utah is one area known to have high radon. An EPA map shows all of Utah has a moderate potential, darker areas are high. Utahns are also more at risk because more of us live in homes with basements.
But radon can differ even from house to house, so the EPA has long recommended people test their homes. The tests are cheap and take only a few days, but state regulators can't seem to move many of us to action.
John Hultquist, Divison of Radiation Control: "I think some of it is simply apathy in the public, because the danger is not immediate."
Another thing that concerns regulators and doctors is that radon testing, reporting and building radiation-resistant homes are all voluntary standards in Utah.
Our homeowner in Beaver just bought his home this summer and had no idea the radon levels were off the charts.
DR. WALLACE AKERLEY: "I was amazed three years ago when I bought my house here that no one even suggested a radon test. And we asked a lot of people and they told us it wasn't a problem."
If you do find radon in your home, there are simple fixes that sometimes involve sealing a crack in the floor or re-routing your ventilation system.
To get a 10-dollar test kit, or to learn more, we've got links on our website, KSL.com.
