CR3 News Magazine 2020 VOL 1: JANUARY National Radon Action Month | Page 32

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Detection methods

There are numerous methods by which a consumer may test for radon with-

out the aid of a professional home inspector

or radon mitigation contractor. Each has advantages and disadvantages. The first choice is between so-called “passive” and “active” approaches.

Passive approaches employ materials that may be set in homes for weeks or months and then packed up and sent away for laboratory analysis. Examples are plastic films that can be developed to show tracks left by alpha and beta particles and activated carbon pouches that can trap the particulate daughter products of radon from circulating air. There are also electret devices where an otherwise permanent charge placed on a plastic is gradually lost through contact with the high-energy emissions of radioactive decay.

At $10-30 per test kit, passive methods are inexpensive. However, if used as recom-mended (generally to be put in place for 5 to 90 days), variations due to location within the home and seasonality make not be captured without a well-planned multi-sample approach costing as much as simply acquiring a portable “active” device.

In 2019, among our many accomplishments,

• We launched a blog that includes infor-mation, resources, and tips on what you can do to protect your and your loved ones’ health.

• We created 5 Health Impact Assessments (HIAs) designed to give residents, local decision-makers, and state public officials a checklist of questions that should be answered before a site or potential site can be deemed safe. The following templates are available: well pads, compressor stations, petrochemical complexes, and truck traffic.

• We introduced Featured Research Reviews, which summarize recent and relevant studies clarifying the impact that shale gas development has on health.

• We sponsored a community meeting regarding the Ewing sarcoma childhood cancer issue, which featured a panel of experts and was attended by more than 200 concerned individuals. The meeting, and subsequent meetings and letters, drew the attention of Gov. Wolf, who ordered a study of the cancers and other health affects related to shale gas development.

• And we published the paper Assessing exposure to unconventional natural gas development: Using an air pollution dispersal screening model to predict new-onset respiratory symptoms, which used an air pollution dispersal screening model and wind direction to describe air emissions and respiratory symptoms near fracking. We found that the higher the number of wells and other facilities located to the west of the home, the greater the likelihood of respiratory symptoms.

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