Missouri ranks high in radon danger but still lacks statewide regulation
ALYSSA SALELA May 20, 2015
Scott Wilson of Wilson Home Inspectors puts
up a warning sign in a residence on April 20 after activating a continuous radon monitoring machine. Radon is closely linked with lung cancer.
LOREN ELLIOTT
COLUMBIA — A week before closing on a house in March, Jenn Trentham received the results from a home inspection test for radon, something she knew little about. The house she was about to buy, as it turned out, was above the safe level for radon.
"I kind of panicked," Trentham said. "I didn't know anything about radon."
Radon is a colorless, odorless gas that causes about 21,000 lung cancer deaths in the United States a year. Missouri has no state laws regulating radon testing, though 11 counties in the state are in the highest potential danger zone. Boone County isn't
among them.
The recommended safe level for radon indoors is 4.0 pCi/L (picocuries per liter) but Boone County is estimated to have an average 4.2 pCi/L.
About 25 percent of buildings in Boone County are estimated to be above this dangerous 4.0 pCi/L level.
After the 4.6 pCi/L radon level was found in her soon-to-be new home, Trentham's real estate agent explained what radon was. The agent also told her that the level of radon could be brought down by a radon removal process that only takes a few days.
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