Schwartz, who began his faculty career in the early 1990s at the University of Pittsburgh’ s School of Medicine’ s department of clinical epidemiology and preventive medicine, and other researchers published a study in 2024 that not only gauged callers’ radon awareness levels, but also studied the feasibility of offering free radon tests via the tobacco quitline in North Dakota.
They found that of the 51 % of callers who completed a brief radon questionnaire, only one in five respondents reported knowing that radon caused lung cancer. The study concluded that radon knowledge among the state’ s smokers was poor and that radon test distribution via quitlines is feasible and may be a valuable addition to helpline services, particularly in states with high radon levels.
“ We ' ve interviewed physicians and other people in North Dakota, people who really should know. And at least half of the people that we spoke to— if they ' ve heard about radon— they have no idea what it is,” Schwartz said. And the ones who have heard about radon have very limited knowledge about the gas, he said.“ So they ' ve heard about radon, kind of the way they ' ve heard about, oh, mitochondrial DNA.” In other words, they’ ve heard it mentioned, but don’ t know much beyond that.
Another key breakdown in understanding is when they hear exposure levels discussed in terms of picocuries per liter. Those numbers don ' t mean anything, he said, until they’ re translated into pack-a-day equivalencies.“ Then it starts to make sense,” he said.
A home with a radon level of 4 pCi / L is the equivalent of every home occupant smoking eight cigarettes per day or receiving 200 chest X-rays per year. A radon level of 10 pCi / L would equate to each family member smoking a pack of cigarettes per day or receiving 500 chest X-rays per year.