Page 6 - sustainable-life-081513

Pamplin Media Group

Thursday, August 15 , 2013

C6

SUSTAINABLE LIFE

Sustainable

Life

By KATHLEEN ROHDE

For Pamplin Media Group

A tasteless, colorless, invisi-

ble killer can be detected in

one in four houses in the Port-

land metro area. Its name is

radon, a radioactive gas, and

experts say the time to test for

it is now.

“I don’t want to sit here 30

years later from now and learn

my husband has cancer,” says

Ella Vining, a mother of two

from Southeast Portland.

Her husband’s office is in the

basement of their home, and an

initial radon test showed moder-

ate levels of the radioactive gas

in the basement.

Basements are usually the

key site of exposure, because ra-

don seeps in from the soil below.

A research team led by Port-

land State University geology

professor Scott Burns, which

tracks radon exposure levels

statewide, updated its previous

maps in January, based on a

surge of new data derived from

test results from 33,000 homes.

The new data enabled the team

tomap out levels of radon by ZIP

code across the state.

Researchers documented ele-

vated radon levels in several

parts of Portland, plus Banks,

Boring, Clackamas, Gladstone,

Lake Oswego, Sandy, Sherwood

and Wilsonville. Outside the

Portland area, therewere elevat-

ed radon levels in Astoria, Mil-

ton-Freewater, Myrtle Creek and

Silverton.

Contamination can vary from

house to house, Burns cautions,

so even an area that has low pre-

dicted radon levels may register

radon levels in the moderate

range or higher.

If untreated, the effects from

prolonged radon exposure can

be fatal.

Radon causes about 21,000

deaths per year in the United

States — twice the number who

die from drunken-driving inci-

dents. It’s the No. 1 cause of lung

cancer in nonsmokers.

Luckily, there are ways to test

for radon.

New results raise alarm

Manufacturers of test kits

record the radioactive levels

measured by users, and send

some of the data to the state.

The Oregon Health Division

gives the data to Burns and his

team, which they organize by

ZIP code.

In 1994, Burns and his team

started research with data

from only 1,100 houses. By

2003, they had test results

from 3,500 houses. Since Janu-

ary, they’ve had much more

extensive statewide testing re-

sults, with data from 33,000 ad-

ditional homes.

“Two-thirds of the tests were

in high- or moderate-potential

areas for radon poisoning,”

Burns says. “We are trying to get

people who are in areas that are

high and moderate to test their

homes.” (See accompanyingmap

of Portland-area ZIP codes).

The ideal time to test is in

the winter, but “you don’t want

to wait six months to find out if

there’s radon in your house,”

says Chad Ruhoff, who does ra-

don testing and mitigation for

the Neil Kelly home-remodel-

ing company in Portland.

Levels of concern

There are three levels of ra-

don exposure typically used:

■

Low: less than two picocu-

ries per liter

■

Moderate: two to four pico-

curies

■

High: more than four pico-

curies

Vining’s basement regis-

tered 3.7 picocuries, in the

moderate range, but still of

concern. The family opted to

remove the radon, a process

known as mitigation.

For Ruhoff, the choice to pay

for mitigation work was easy. He

tested for radon in his own home

five years ago, when Neil Kelly

hired him. He found his house

registered six picocuries per li-

ter — higher than the four pico-

curies level that the U.S. Envi-

ronmental Protection Agency

defines as acceptable. His chil-

dren’s playroom and art room

were located in the basement.

“I don’t want them exposed to

that gas,” Ruhoff says.

There are both short-term

and long-term test kits. The

short-term test measures radon

levels in a house during the past

two days to three months. A

long-term test measures levels

from three months to a year or

more.

Neil Kelly likes to take an av-

erage radon exposure level over

the course of a year, Ruhoff says.

The company startswith a short-

term test, and then determines

whether another short-term or

long-term testing is required, or

if mitigation should proceed.

Prehistoric flooding is culprit

The radon problemhere origi-

nated with the Missoula Floods

during the Ice Age. Flood waters

carved the Columbia River

Gorge and brought an unwel-

come intruder: radioactive ra-

don embedded in granite. As a

result, there are high levels of

radon in flood-deposit areas,

Burns says.

“We didn’t know it was a haz-

ard till 1984,” he says.

Then-U.S. Surgeon General

Richard Carmona warned the

public about the dangers of ra-

don in 2005, calling the threat

“completely preventable.”

Radon seeps into a home be-

cause of pressure the house

puts on the soil below. To ease

the pressure, mitigation compa-

nies seal up cracks in the base-

ment. Then a four-inch-diame-

ter hole is cut into the base-

ment floor, and an area of the

ground below is cleared out. A

pipe is attached from the hole

up to the roof with a pump to

filter air out of the house.

This entire process can cost

from $900 to $2,500. At Neil Kelly,

a standard mitigation job costs

about $1,500, depending on the

complexity of the house.

During mitigation, workers

don’t generallywear special pro-

tective gear to avoid inhaling ra-

don, Ruhoff says.

“Radon poisoning is from

long exposures and high levels,”

he explains. For example, some-

one living in a basement bed-

room with high radon levels

might be exposed for eight

hours each night.

Vining and her family live in

the 97202 ZIP code, which in-

cludes Sellwood, Eastmoreland,

Brooklyn and nearby neighbor-

hoods. Burns’ team now has test

results from 348 properties in

that ZIP code, with an average

result of 3.8 picocuries. Though

that average places the ZIP code

in themoderate category, 31 per-

cent of the tests there registered

levels higher than four picocu-

ries.

Testing conducted after the

Vinings had their problemmiti-

gated last January showed a

radon level of 0.9, which Ruhoff

says is better than the air out-

side.

“It’s something I don’t have to

worry about now,” Ella Vining

says. “And if we put our house

on the market one day, I think

it’ll help.”

During his time with Neil Kel-

ly, Ruhoff says there’s been an

increase in the number of people

testing and mitigating for radon.

But Burns says there’s plenty