Maddie had already beaten cancer once. At 14, she was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma, a cancer of the lymphatic system. Now, at 25, she is cancer‐free.
Maddie, a nurse, and her husband, Ryan, who works for a nearby city’ s recreation department, were concerned but didn’ t want to lose the house. They decided they would test later and pay for any needed radon remediation themselves.
The sale went through in November 2024.
While walking their rescue pit bull, Ella, through their new neighborhood, Ryan
noticed a radon mitigation system on another house. Then he counted five or six others.
Maddie and Ryan tested for radon with a kit they bought online.
“ I don’ t remember what the number was, but it was through the roof,” Maddie said.“ That’ s when we kind of went into panic mode.”
The EPA has long recommended that homeowners test for radon with a simple kit or electronic device that measures radon in something called picocuries per liter.
If a test hits 4 or higher, the EPA urges people to hire a radon mitigation company to bring down the levels.
The Millers, hoping for a more reliable test, rented a professional radon testing device from Falls Tool Rental in Cuyahoga Falls.
It showed a radon level of 36 – nine times higher than what the EPA says is dangerous.
Living in a home with a radon level of 4 has the health impact of smoking eight cigarettes per day, or having 200 chest X‐ rays in a year.
When radon levels hit 10, it’ s the equivalent of smoking 20 cigarettes per day or having 500 chest X‐rays, according to American Radon Mitigation.
A radon level of 36 has exponentially more risk.
Maddie and Ryan hired a local remediation specialist who assessed their home and installed PVC pipe from the basement to the outside. The system includes a fan to reroute the radon outside, where it dissipates.
It cost about $ 1,200.
Afterward, radon levels in their home plummeted to what the EPA says are safe levels.
Maddie and Ryan alerted their neighbors and planned to tell Melissa Derrig, too. But before that could happen, Melissa’ s mom – who still lives in the neighborhood – found