CLEVELAND — Radon is known as a silent killer — a gas that can’t be seen, smelled or tasted — that comes from the natural breakdown of uranium in soil and rock that’s under the foundation of every home, school building and workplace.
The gas enters buildings through cracks and holes in the foundation.
What You Need To Know
- It’s estimated that about 21,000 deaths each year are from lung cancer caused by radon
- About 1 in every 15 homes in the U.S. have high levels of the gas
- High levels of radon have been detected in all 88 Ohio counties
- Ohio is among the highest risk states having too much radon trapped in homes
- Radon levels may be reduced in buildings
- Radon levels shouldn't be higher than 4 pCi/L (picocurries per liter)
“Just because you have an old house with tighter material under the slab, doesn't mean that you're not going to have an issue,” said Robert Dillon, owner of Northeast Ohio Radon Mitigation. “If you have high levels of uranium under the soil or under the foundation, it can still make its way in, even through those tighter materials.”
Breathing high levels of radon over time increases the risk of lung cancer. The Environmental Protection Agency says levels of 4 pCi/L (picocurries per liter) and greater are considered a high risk to a person's health. Radon mitigation experts like Dillion and Brian Abbott of Northeast Ohio Radon Mitigation help bring the levels down.
“I've seen some in northern Ohio as high as 50 picocurries per liter,” said Dillon. “And those tend to come down really well when we put the systems in.”
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, radon gas is the leading cause of lung cancer deaths among nonsmokers in America. It takes the lives of about 21,000 people each year.
Annie Cacciato previously was interviewed by Spectrum News in 2021. She was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer in 2013, and later learned buildings she had spent years working in had radon levels of more than 25.
“Lung cancer from radon is 100% preventable if people know to test their building,” Cacciato told Spectrum News in 2021.
Cacciato quickly became an advocate for radon awareness and testing. In June 2021, Gov. Mike DeWine signed Ohio HB 106 (Radon Awareness Bill) into law as the renamed Annie Cacciato Act, designating January as Radon Awareness Month.
Annie Cacciato died in November.
Her husband, Matt Cacciato, doesn’t want anyone else to go through what his family did.
“It is particularly difficult and brutal for people to hear the diagnosis that they have lung cancer, when they haven't been exposed to secondhand smoke or have never smoked themselves. It's incomprehensible,” said Matt Cacciato.
The levels of radon vary from building to building. The only way to know the radon level is to test for it. It’s a simple, 48-hour test and there are options to choose from. The Earth is constantly moving, so the EPA recommends testing buildings every two years. The EPA Citizen's Guide to Radon can give a good rundown of the protocol and the steps that should be taken as a concerned homeowner.
“There's different things you can do to test,” said Dillon. “There are charcoal canisters, those are the most cost-effective. You will put that canister down in your basement or the lowest occupied level, you leave it there for a specified amount of time. And then you mail it off to a lab, they process it and send you the results. Somebody like me, a radon professional, can put a continuous radon monitor in a basement. And you can get a digital readout of hour-by-hour levels. And then there's also something called an alpha track detector that you can put in a basement or again, the lowest living level. And you can leave that there for the long term and see if you have a long-term exposure risk.”
Dillion said if a home has levels of 4 pCi/L (picocurries per liter) or higher, homeowners should contact a radon mitigation company for further testing.
To remove, reduce or get rid of radon, a radon mitigation company like Northeast Ohio Radon Mitigation will install a radon mitigation system. The process involves suctioning the radon gas from under the lowest level floor of a building. PVC piping connects a hole in the floor to a fan that sits outside of the building. The fan discharges radon gas above the roof’s edge where it dissipates into the atmosphere. Dillon said a radon mitigation system can be installed for about $1,000.
"It'll escape through this vent then it dissipates into the atmosphere and at that point, there's enough air around it that it'll dissipate and it's not harmful anymore,” said Abbott.
“These mitigation systems last a long time. So if you average that cost out over time, it's relatively inexpensive,” said Dillon. “After we do our mitigation system, we have to run a post-mitigation test, the levels will start trailing off within about 24 hours.”
When people breathe radon into their lungs, it can emit particles that cause DNA damage and, ultimately, lead to cancer. If someone believes they’ve been exposed to high levels of radon for a long period of time, Dr. James Stevenson, a medical oncologist at the Cleveland Clinic Taussig Cancer Center, said to be aware for symptoms of lung cancer.
“The most common will be cough, shortness of breath and getting out of breath, either with or without, you know, being active,” said Stevenson. “Coughing up of blood is always a warning sign for something bad going on in your lungs. So that's always something to get checked out. Those would be the most common symptoms that we see, sometimes chest pains.”
Stevenson said there’s an even higher risk of developing lung cancer for people who smoke and live in a home with elevated levels of radon.
“Those are really two strikes against you,” said Stevenson. “It increases the risk in smokers. So, if you're a smoker, definitely the number one thing on your list is to quit, but then also still consider getting your house radon tested if you haven't already.”
Matt Cacciato now continues to advocate on behalf of his wife for additional advertising and awareness around the dangers of radon.
“I'd like to see, you know, this be much bigger next year, I'd like to see some ads on television,” said Cacciato. “I'd like to see some more billboards, and there are some billboards out there but as it grows, and people become more in tune to the dangers, I think we'll save more lives.”
Annie Cacciato lost her life to lung cancer believed to be induced by radon, but because of her, she’s giving others a chance to save thier lives. It’s a problem that has a solution and it all starts with a test.
“I think about my wife smiling down and knowing that, you know, yes, you know, somebody else kind of, you know, gave themselves a better chance at avoiding some of the trauma and suffering that we had to as a family,” said Matt Cacciato.
The Ohio Department of Health offers free radon test kits for homeowners. For more information on radon in Ohio click here.