dodge pornography and sexting and cyberbullying? And those are just the local worries. There’s climate change, political unrest, viruses and health scares, as well as overarching anxiety, mental health challenges and suicide. So why add radon to this list?
It’s true, there are no shortage of things to fear — many of which I have no control over. However, there are things I can control or at least impact.
I can pray with my children daily, I can feed them healthy food at school and teach them about their bodies and why vaping and drugs are bad. I can model mindfulness and proper perspective and bathe them in sanitizer when they come home from school. And I can do something about radon — I can test my home, which we’ve done, and I can add a fan, which we’ve done. Given how prevalent cancer is in our society, it’s very possible they might get cancer someday. However, if I can eliminate one major risk factor now, I will do it.
Question: What did you learn that surprised you?
Sara: I think one of the most intriguing parts of this project was people’s reactions. Some people I talked with were unaware of radon, but eager to learn more, while others were unaware but skeptical about radon being a real problem, even accusing me of “creating” the news. Other people were quite nervous about it, so I reassured them that while radon and radiation is a serious problem, there are things they could do now to reduce their risk.
Another surprising part was just how unregulated this carcinogen is around the entire country. There are no federal laws regarding radon testing, although there are several states that have required testing in public places like schools and daycares, as well as requiring testing as part of real-estate transactions. However, there are a significant number of states, including Utah, where there’s either nothing, or very paltry efforts, to educate people about something that can seriously hurt them, and protect them from it legislatively. In today’s law-soaked society, it just seems odd that we haven’t done more to regulate this known carcinogen.
Final question: What’s the best advice you can give to the public to eliminate radon as a concern?
Sara: Utah is a family focused state, and the majority of our decisions are made to benefit our individual families. Testing our home for radon would fall into that category. However, choosing to tackle radon also provides community-level benefits, because as we make our individual homes safer and talk about radon with others, the entire community becomes safer.
As we are proactive about testing and mitigating, we create a social norm and expectation that radon tests are done when you buy or sell a home. People understand why radon exposure is dangerous and radon mitigation systems become a common sight on homes. We expect that our children’s schools and child care centers will have been tested and we support policies that make testing and mitigation easier and more accessible for everyone.
Doug Wilks is editor of the Deseret News.
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