Testing for radon in schools
not always done
June 26, 2018 Kevin Elliott
A
Considered the second leading cause of lung cancer in the United
States, radon gas leaches undetected into millions of basements each
year where it is breathed in by unsuspecting occupants. The colorless,
odorless, radioactive gas is responsible for about 21,000 deaths each
year, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Because of the danger and risks involved with radon, state law requires
any new licensed daycare centers to be tested for radon. Property
owners selling a home must disclose any known radon levels, and
Michigan's residential building code requires some new homes to be
built with some radon resistant features. And while the EPA
recommends that public school districts test buildings for radon every
five years, there are no federal or state laws requiring schools to
conduct tests at all.
Of the 28 public school districts in Oakland County, districts that
regularly test for radon or have plans to test for radon, include:
Bloomfield Hills Schools, Clawson Public Schools, Ferndale Public
Schools, Novi Community Schools, Rochester Community Schools and
South Lyon Community Schools.
Some districts – including Birmingham Public Schools, Huron Valley
Schools, Troy School District, and Walled Lake Consolidated Schools –
have tested for radon in at least one building or more in the past, but
don't plan on testing in the future. The remainder of the public school
districts in the county said they don't test, while six districts failed to
respond to inquiries from Downtown.
"Unfortunately, radon is easy to ignore because there are no short-term
side effects," said Aaron Berndt, state radon officer with the Michigan
Indoor Radon Program in the Michigan Department of Environmental
Quality (MDEQ).
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DOES YOUR STATE REQUIRE
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