a287  1909  28 Feb 87
BC-APN--Radon Cure, Adv15-2 Takes,0692
$adv 15
AGENCIES AND RADIO OUT
For release Sun., March 15
From AP Newsfeatures
(APN SUNDAY ILLUSTRATIONS: Mailed print subscribers get 1 b&w photo,
1 graphic.)
    EDITOR'S NOTE - Federal officials estimate that at least one out of
every 10 homes in the United States is contaminated by unsafe levels
of radioactive radon gas. But there are ways to remedy the problem,
as research in upstate New York and elsewhere has shown.
By MARY ESCH
Associated Press Writer
    VOORHEESVILLE, N.Y. (AP) - This rural community in southeastern New
York is a testing ground for ways to protect humans from radon, a
cancer-causing radioactive gas seeping into millions of homes in the
United States.
    ''Radon is by far the most serious health-effect problem that the
EPA is working on,'' says Alfred Craig, who heads the Environmental
Protection Agency's effort to reduce radon levels in homes.
    The National Cancer Institute says radon is second only to smoking
as the leading cause of lung cancer.
    Craig says the agency considers radon a more urgent threat than
dioxin, asbestos or toxic waste dumps.
    ''But,'' he adds, ''It's also more readily solvable.''
    One of the men helping solve the problem is Robert Mitchell, who won
awards for designing passive solar homes during the energy crisis of
the last decade.
    In one new house built here by Mitchell, a short pipe sticks up from
the basement floor. It connects to perforated pipes below the
concrete slab. If radon gas is detected in the house someday,
Mitchell says the problem will be solved simply by connecting a duct
to the floor pipe and installing a small fan to suck the subterranean
gas and vent it out through the roof or wall.
    ''All the homes I'm building now will be radon-resistant,'' says
Mitchell, a lanky and laconic young designer who works in a renovated
farmhouse on a snowy hillside south of Albany. He happened to turn
his attention from solar design to the problem of radon remediation
just before his rural community was chosen as the testing ground for
such work.
    The village of Voorheesville, nestled below the shaly ridges of the
Helderberg Escarpment, was picked for the EPA study of radon
reduction after high levels of the gas were found in 75 of 84 houses
tested last fall.
    Government contractors will install pipes, ducts, fans, sealing
caulk and other radon-reduction paraphernalia in eight homes in
Voorheesville and Schodack in the Albany area and another eight
houses in southeastern New York this spring.
    Similar work will be done on some 600 homes across the country
before the $1.5 million-a-year EPA project is concluded in about five
years, Craig says.
    The goal is to compile enough information for contractors to
prescribe a cure for radon problems in any kind of home on any kind
of soil, according to Craig, deputy director of EPA's Air and Energy
Engineering Research Laboratory.
    The EPA is also planning three demonstration projects to test
radon-preventive building techniques, Craig says.
    The New York State Energy Office has been conducting radon workshops
in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Washington, D.C. and several
other states since last May, says John Reese, the project manager. So
far, more than 700 people have taken the three-day course, including
about 400 contractors.
    ''It's going to be a major field because of the number of homes
nationally that are affected,'' Craig says. ''The people going into
it are typically young, progressive people, often with a background
in solar or energy-efficient homes.''
    The EPA estimates that 12 percent of homes in the United States have
radon levels above the agency's safety guideline of 4 picocuries per
liter of air. Some independent researchers put the figure much
higher. A picocurie is a measure of radiation. About 3 picocuries
equals the amount of radiation in 200 chest X-rays in a year. The
health risk of living in a home with an average yearly level of 4
picocuries of radon has been compared to that of smoking half a pack
of cigarettes per day.
    MORE
    
AP-NY-02-28-87 2209EST
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a289  1928  28 Feb 87
BC-APN--Radon Cure, Adv15-1st Add,0622
$adv 15
AGENCIES AND RADIO OUT
For release Sun., March 15
VOORHEESVILLE, N.Y.: per day.
    Federal officials figure radon causes 5,000 to 20,000 of the
nation's 149,000 new lung cancer cases each year.
    Radon has always been in the soil and the air as a natural product
of the radioactive decay of uranium in rocks. Radon gas quickly
decays into other radioactive elements which adhere to dust and are
inhaled.
    High radon concentrations in homes drew national attention in 1984
when a nuclear power plant worker in Pennsylvania was found to be
highly radioactive - not from his job, but from his house, where
radon levels around 3,000 picocuries were found. Scientists said
breathing air with that much radon was like smoking 112 cigarettes
per hour.
    Stanley Watras's house is on the Reading Prong, a radon-rich granite
formation stretching from eastern Pennsylvania across northern New
Jersey to southeastern New York. The first EPA tests of radon
reduction methods were done in homes in Pennsylvania and Clinton
County, N.J., where levels near 1,000 picocuries were found in homes.
    As test results have accumulated from around the country,
researchers say radon problems are widespread.
    H. Ward Alter, senior researcher for the Terradex testing firm of
Walnut Creek, Calif., says his analysis of about 60,000 test results
from all 50 states indicates that 23 percent of U.S. homes may have
radon levels exceeding EPA safety guidelines. He says he found a
house in Maine with a radon level of 4,354 picocuries.
    Radon gets into houses mainly through cracks in the basement floor
and walls. When a house is poorly insulated, heat rising through the
roof creates a chimney effect that draws gases in from soil below.
Kitchen exhaust fans, clothes dryers, furnaces and fireplaces
decrease air pressure inside the house, sucking more radon in.
    Solving the problem usually involves sealing openings, like sump
holes and foundation cracks, and either increasing air pressure in
the basement or installing a ventilation system.
    In EPA studies on homes in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, where Craig
says the level of radon in soil is up to 50 times as high as in the
Albany area, sub-slab ventilation systems were able to bring indoor
radon levels down to around 4 picocuries from more than 1,000
picocuries. Ventilation systems, which are installed in the cellar
floor or walls, typically cost the homeowner about $1,000 to $3,000,
but may run as high as $5,000.
    Pressurization of the basement, another promising remediation
method, will also be tested in the Albany area. That method involves
installing a small, 15-watt fan to blow air from upstairs or outside
into the basement so the increased pressure keeps radon out.
    In a demonstration project by the Bonneville Power Administration in
the Pacific Northwest, basement pressurization was found to be very
effective in reducing radon levels, Craig says.
    ''The cost and ease of installation of pressurization systems is
minimal compared to other techniques,' Craig says. ''This makes it
very attractive.'' However, the method may increase heating costs
because it draws outside air into the house.
    Craig predicts that radon inspections will become as routine as
termite inspections when homes are bought and sold and that in the
future homes will be built to resist radon.
    ''I think progressive builders will eventually face the radon
problem up front and build houses to be radon-resistant in
radon-prone areas,'' Craig says.
    ''The technology is not complicated. It's primarily a construction
problem, an engineering problem; and as such, it's readily solvable.
I've not been in a house yet that you couldn't remediate at a
fraction of the value of the house.''
    END ADV
    
AP-NY-02-28-87 2227EST
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