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indoor environment; (2) coordinate Federal, state, local, and private research and development efforts
to improve indoor air quality; and (3) assess appropriate Federal Government actions to mitigate the
environmental and health risks associated with indoor air quality problems. Following the SARA
of 1986, the Indoor Radon Abatement Act of 1988 granted USEPA authority to conduct radon studies
and compile a list of high risk areas, including schools, with elevated levels of radon.
Over twenty years after the passing of SARA and the Indoor Radon Abatement Act,
public understanding of the gravity of the radon risk remains limited [17–19]. Further, the perceived
high costs of radon mitigation, and the relative shortage of certified radon tests and mitigation
professionals, impedes the reduction of indoor radon exposure [20]. Consequently, under the
leadership of USEPA, the Federal Radon Action Plan (FRAP), a collaborative inter-agency program,
was initiated in 2011 to unify federal programs, disseminate radon exposure health risk information
to the public, provide professional radon testing and mitigating services, and promote radon risk
reduction through financial incentives and support [21]. Since the initiation of FRAP, at least
1.6 million homes, schools, and childcare facilities benefited, and in 12.5% of those units, testing and
mitigating were conducted when necessary as of 2014. However, the data are not available to the
public on exactly how many schools were benefited from FRAP. Because FRAP was phased out in 2015,
the National Radon Action Plan (NRAP), led by the American Lung Association, has assumed several
of FRAP’s functions for radon risk reduction, with the goal of mitigating 5 million ”high radon”
homes and saving 3200 lives from lung cancer annually by 2020 [21]. NRAP however, has no explicit
mandate to mitigate ”high radon” schools. Even the Indoor Radon Abatement Act has not stipulated
an enforceable indoor radon limit for schools but only recommends a national goal that ”the air within
buildings in the United States should be as free of radon as the ambient air outside of buildings”.
A nationwide survey of radon levels in schools estimated that nearly one in five schools in the US has
at least one schoolroom with short-term radon levels above the action level of 4 pCi/L, the level at
which USEPA recommends that schools take mitigation actions [22]. In New York state, for instance,
approximately 90% of the 4290 upstate schools are located in area designated by USEPA as Zone 1
(4 pCi/L) [13]. Since 1992, the New York Department of Health has conducted radon concentration
measurement in over 12,300 classrooms in 186 schools using short-term detectors. Eighteen schools
had >4 pCi/L of radon in over half of the rooms. About 1150 school rooms, or 9.3% of those measured,
contained from 4 pCi/L to 20 pCi/L of radon, and a smaller number of school rooms in 19 schools
contained up to 80.2 pCi/L of radon [13]. USEPA estimates that more than 70,000 schoolrooms in use
today have high short-term radon levels [22].
3. Radon Reduction and Control in Schools: State Laws and Regulations
3.1. State Radon Testing in School Requirements
Currently, only thirteen states’ statutes explicitly address radon issues in schools, and radon
testing in schools is only mandatory in nine states (Table 1). For example, radon testing in schools is
not mandatory in California, a state that has over 10,000 public schools (elementary and secondary)
with over 6.3 million students [23]. Even within these nine states, state regulations on radon testing in
schools vary considerably in stringency. Connecticut statutes, for example, require radon testing in
public schools only, whereas in New York, radon testing is only required for public schools located in
Radon Zone 1. In contrast, radon testing is mandatory for all schools (Public and Private) in Rhode
Island. The timing and frequency of radon re-testing also differ among the states (Table 1).