COVID19 Public Health Response Is Much Different Than Radon Response
RADON
Our current pandemic is prompting us to pay attention to an invisible health threat that will continue to cause thousands of untimely deaths in the U.S. until it is mitigated. COVID-19 is wreaking havoc across the globe, so far infecting nearly 1 million people in the US and nearly 3 million people worldwide. These numbers reflect the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases, but are likely to be much higher because the only way to know if you have COVID-19 is to test for it. Once this virus gains entry into the respiratory tract, the infection is established. Most people will have a mild form of the illness but some will not be as lucky. To date, over 50,000 deaths in the US have been attributed to this viral infection. Most of the deaths are the result of pneumonia, an infection of the lungs, that results in a reduction of oxygen levels in the blood and subsequent organ failure. Many of these patients are put on ventilators to help them breathe in hopes that their own lungs will begin to work again. The virus can cause mild to severe lung damage which is likely permanent. And so, in order to protect ourselves, we must stay isolated and physically distant from others to avoid exposure in hopes that an eventual treatment or vaccine will save us.
COVID-19, often referred to as the “unseen enemy” or the “silent killer” by the media and even the President, is similar in many ways of another unseen enemy—radon. Like COVID-19, radon is invisible and can only be detected with a test to determine its presence. Radon also affects the lungs, causing irreversible damage, and often death from lung cancer. The EPA estimates that over 21,000 lung cancer deaths per year in the US are attributable to radon exposure. The only way to reduce the risk of exposure, and ultimately death, is to mitigate radon in homes and buildings where levels are high.
The public response to the threat of COVID-19 has been much different than the response to the radon threat. In a matter of weeks, this country has been locked down, schools and businesses closed, and other federal, state, and local actions taken to contain and mitigate this disease. These actions are warranted, and have and will continue to slow the spread of the virus. Most people, though not all, have complied with guidelines and understand the rationale of these strict measures. They understand that their behavior will not only save themselves, but also save others from the consequences of exposure to this virus. The level of social and political will to respond quickly and appropriately to the COVID-19 pandemic is in stark contrast to any other public health threats, including radon exposure.
The response to radon risk has historically been weak with both the public and policy makers. My recent research study, conducted in Allentown, PA, showed that there is widespread lack of awareness, knowledge, and concern about radon in a population that is actually at very high risk of poor health outcomes associated with exposure to high indoor radon levels. My study results showed that only 60% of the 550 people surveyed had actually ever heard of radon. This is alarming especially because Allentown and surrounding areas have some of the highest levels of indoor radon ever recorded. And, of those who had heard of it,only a small percentage perceived it as a serious health threat. This is alarming, but not surprising. Radon studies conducted as far back as the 1990’s have shown a public apathy, in general, to health risks associated with radon.Epidemiologists speculated that this apathy was partially due to the fact that radon is naturally-occurring and invisible, making it somehow less “real”.
This idea of “out of sight, out of mind” seemed plausible until now. COVID 19 is also naturally- occurring and invisible, but we have seen a significantly different public health response when compared to the action taken to prevent radon exposure. This raises the question as to why the majority of the population is heeding the warnings and engaging in protective behaviors for COVID19, when they don’t behave similarly with radon. This behavior results from the level of perceived risk,which is a personal assessment of the likelihood of being harmed. Perceived risk can be influenced by a number of factors including the amount of media attention and the ways in which policy makers react to the risk. It can also be influenced by the imminence of the threat. Exposure to COVID19 may result in symptomatic and even serious illness in just 14 days, which can seem far more daunting than the long latency period associated with radon exposure. The 24-hour news coverage with a death count rolling across the screen, the daily press briefings at both the federal and state levels, and the new and ever-changing policies that are intended to keep us safer have all increased our levels of perceived risk and prompted us to take appropriate actions to stay safe. We are willing to wear masks at the grocery store, stay home from work, and shut down businesses to stay safe from COVID19, yet only a small percentage of people in the US test their homes for deadly radon gas. The challenge for those of us who work on radon is to achieve a similar level of public commitment and vigilance in mitigating exposure to radon. This can be best accomplished by getting our policy makers to take radon risk more seriously and implement policies and laws that require testing and mitigation.
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