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Air quality is a frequent point of news and conversation in Utah, especially during the winter. Some may not know that another indoor air quality threat gets worse when temperatures are cold: naturally occurring radioactive radon gas.
Fortunately, Utahns statewide are taking action after hearing the stories of people like Kerri Robbins, a Lehi resident who is committed to helping others avoid her radon nightmare.
"As I'm washing my hands [that morning], I'm looking in the mirror and I don't know why I'm here," Robbins recalled to KSL.
Confused and frightened, she went to the hospital, where doctors eventually discovered lung cancer that had already metastasized.
The oncologist explained that it had gone from my lungs to my brain. The first thing he said was, 'Have you had your house tested for radon?'
–Kerri Robbins
"The oncologist explained that it had gone from my lungs to my brain," Robbins explained. "The first thing he said was, 'Have you had your house tested for radon?'"
According to Dr. Wallace Akerley, a medical oncologist at the Huntsman Cancer Institute, radon is the leading cause of lung cancer in Utah.
"Every Utah resident should know that radon is radioactive. It's a cause of cancer. You can't see it, you can't smell it, you can't feel it, but it's there in every house to some degree," Akerley said. "If you don't test, you don't know if you have a dangerous house or not."
While grappling with her non-smoking lung cancer diagnosis, Robbins tested her home with a simple radon test kit (which is free to anyone in Utah). The results were startling: Robbins' home had 31.3 picocuries per liter (pCi/L) of radioactive radon gas.
"30.0 picocuries of radon is like smoking three packs of cigarettes every day," Eleanor Divver, the radon coordinator at the Utah Department of Environmental Quality, told KSL. "It's heartbreaking to hear these stories, and yet I hear them every day."
The discovery of radon levels at 31.3 picocuries per liter in her home — over 11 times the WHO's action level and more than 15 times the EPA's consideration level — is alarming but, unfortunately, not uncommon.
Recent reports from Utah-based experts suggest that there are concerning radon levels in 58% of Salt Lake County, 47% of Davis County, and 63% of Utah County homes (see maps below). On average, 1 in 3 homes in Utah has dangerous radon levels.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recommends radon mitigation be considered at 2.0 pCi/L, and the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends taking action at 2.7 pCi/L.
Known as a slow and silent killer, radon causes about 21,000 lung cancer deaths every year in the U.S., according to the EPA. "There's uranium in the soil, there's uranium in the rock everywhere. It's imperative that every Utahn test," Divver told KSL.
"Our level went from 31.3 to 1.3," Robbins said after having a radon mitigation installed by Utah Radon Services. "I feel so much more comfortable in my house now."
Installing the necessary equipment to disperse radon in a midsize home is relatively inexpensive, costing about the same as purchasing a good-quality laptop computer.
For more information about the effects of radon and how to get a free test, visit UtahRadon.org.
