Phil Jalbert
The Federal Radon Action Plan is an exciting project that a small team and I at EPA have been intimately involved with now for about 15 months. The project is unprecedented in that it addresses a serious health risk in a way that not been tried before. One of my aunt’s died of lung cancer at 56 – she and no one in her family ever smoked.
In June of 2011 the Federal government announced a Federal Radon Action Plan for protecting people and families. It culminated six months of intense and collaborative effort between several major Departments and Agencies. We need more collaboration like this, something not seen often enough in the Federal government. The plan is the first to take a coordinated long-term approach to reducing the health risk from radon across federal agencies. The plan will focus on the millions of homes and schools the Feds control or influence.
We are hoping that our actions will motivate the private sector, state and local governments to take more action. As a nation we’ve made progress, yet today millions of American homes and an unknown number of children in our schools are exposed to radon above EPA’s recommended action level. In 2011about 124,000 Americans took action to reduce the radon level in their homes. In 2010 America’s home builders included radon reducing features in nearly 17% of all new single family homes, and in 40% of those built in high radon areas. Amazing!
We hope this unprecedented approach will make the radon risk more visible, spur action and help save lives; especially those of low-income Americans without the resources to reduce their risk. You can learn more about the plan at http://www.epa.gov/radon/action_plan.html.
I’ve been with EPA since 1983 and first encountered radon while serving the U.S. Navy nuclear submarine program in the early 1970’s. My work at EPA on radon since 1989 has been one of the most satisfying things I’ve ever done. Test your home, the life you save may be your own.
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