Join our Mailing List!
Please click the link below to sign up for your community paper mailing list. Stay up to date with all the events going on in your community as well as the latest news.Sign Up Today!
No. 2 cause of lung cancer a relative unknown
By Jeffrey M. Salem
Most people know that cigarette smoking is the leading cause of lung cancer in the United States.
But can you name the second leading cause?
Randy Maley, environmental public health specialist with the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, bets you can’t.
“There’s a lack of knowledge out there about radon,” he said.
Radon, a radioactive gas that seeps up from shallow depths of the soil underneath homes, can be a health hazard if inhaled for extended periods of time at unsafe concentrations.
The theme of Public Health Week, April 7 to 13, this year is Climate of Change: Your Health in the Balance. And county health officials pointed to a relatively unknown but dangerous health hazard coming from the ground beneath our feet.
Radon is responsible for 21,000 lung cancer deaths each year in the United States, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
“The metro area is a hot zone for radon,” said Jodee Fredrick, with Clay County Public Health Center. “We have so much groundwork going on, and radon isn’t on people’s radar, really.”
There is a reason for the lack of understanding, Maley said.
“With radon, you can’t see it, smell it, taste it, and it’s easy for people to ignore,” he said.
Kansas City is designated a Zone 1 area, which is defined as areas having the highest potential for unsafe radon concentrations of the three EPA zones in the country. That statistic can be misleading, Maley said, as radon can be at unsafe levels in lower-zoned areas, and at safe levels in zone 1 areas like Kansas City.
“We’ve had houses with elevated radon levels, and the houses on either side were fine,” he said, exemplifying how radon levels can change within short ranges.
Because symptoms of high radon levels cannot be detected by humans — much like carbon monoxide poisoning — the only true way to steer clear of radon’s toxicity is through prevention.
A short-term testing kit may be ordered for free through the state department of health and human services. The Web site is www.dhss.mo.gov/Radon. Essentially, the test is opened and left exposed in a residence for three to seven days and is then sealed and sent to a lab for radon detection.
Maley and Fredrick both stressed prevention as the only way to be safe from high radon concentrations.
“There are no symptoms of exposure for many, many years until you find out you have lung cancer from it,” Maley said.
For more information about radon, visit www.epa.gov or www.dhss.mo.gov.
Staff writer Jeffrey M. Salem can be reached at 389-6653 or jeffsalem@npgco.com.
printable version
e-mail this story
But can you name the second leading cause?
Randy Maley, environmental public health specialist with the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, bets you can’t.
“There’s a lack of knowledge out there about radon,” he said.
Radon, a radioactive gas that seeps up from shallow depths of the soil underneath homes, can be a health hazard if inhaled for extended periods of time at unsafe concentrations.
The theme of Public Health Week, April 7 to 13, this year is Climate of Change: Your Health in the Balance. And county health officials pointed to a relatively unknown but dangerous health hazard coming from the ground beneath our feet.
Radon is responsible for 21,000 lung cancer deaths each year in the United States, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
“The metro area is a hot zone for radon,” said Jodee Fredrick, with Clay County Public Health Center. “We have so much groundwork going on, and radon isn’t on people’s radar, really.”
There is a reason for the lack of understanding, Maley said.
“With radon, you can’t see it, smell it, taste it, and it’s easy for people to ignore,” he said.
Kansas City is designated a Zone 1 area, which is defined as areas having the highest potential for unsafe radon concentrations of the three EPA zones in the country. That statistic can be misleading, Maley said, as radon can be at unsafe levels in lower-zoned areas, and at safe levels in zone 1 areas like Kansas City.
“We’ve had houses with elevated radon levels, and the houses on either side were fine,” he said, exemplifying how radon levels can change within short ranges.
Because symptoms of high radon levels cannot be detected by humans — much like carbon monoxide poisoning — the only true way to steer clear of radon’s toxicity is through prevention.
A short-term testing kit may be ordered for free through the state department of health and human services. The Web site is www.dhss.mo.gov/Radon. Essentially, the test is opened and left exposed in a residence for three to seven days and is then sealed and sent to a lab for radon detection.
Maley and Fredrick both stressed prevention as the only way to be safe from high radon concentrations.
“There are no symptoms of exposure for many, many years until you find out you have lung cancer from it,” Maley said.
For more information about radon, visit www.epa.gov or www.dhss.mo.gov.
Staff writer Jeffrey M. Salem can be reached at 389-6653 or jeffsalem@npgco.com.