In Worcester, testing by Advance Local’s MassLive last year found elevated radon
in an apartment at Great Brook Valley Gardens used as an in-home day care. One
test was twice the federal action level, and two more were just below, with the
average surpassing the federal standard.
Radon professionals use the average as their benchmark because radon emissions
in a house uctuate.
Alex Corrales, executive director of the Worcester Housing Authority, said the
results at Great Brook Valley were “inconclusive” and didn’t cause him to “jump
off my desk and be in alarm.”
He said the housing authority won’t be following up with its own testing on the
unit, which was vacant as of September. Worcester hasn’t tested any units in the
past.
However, Corrales said, the agency is considering whether broader testing is
warranted. “If we’re going to pursue radon testing, then it’s something that we
want to do for the entire complex,” he said.
In the meantime, Corrales said there is “no reason” for tenants “to be alarmed
that there’s a radon issue” in Worcester public housing based on MassLive’s
limited sampling.
In Huntsville, agency leaders initially had nothing to say when informed of the
newsroom’s test results. Mike Norment, the facilities manager, copied a reporter
on an internal email.
“This guy is also calling me,” he wrote. “I’m not responding.”
Norment was willing to talk previously. Last year, he told the newsroom he
personally tested more than 1,800 units citywide in the 1990s. He said he found
high radon levels in 43. He provided a map showing places where radon removal
systems were installed.
Advance Local’s AL.com visited one of those locations, a complex known as Butler
Terrace, and found elevated levels of radon in seven units. After retesting, the
average results in three units were still high enough that radon professionals
would recommend a removal system.
“I would love to see it xed,” said Shineka Howard, whose Butler Terrace
apartment tested three times the federal action level.
Huntsville’s only response to the newsroom’s ndings came from Sandra
Eddlemon, the housing authority’s executive director. It consisted of an emailed
copy of the Huntsville Housing Authority’s mission statement and two additional
sentences: