Q&A with Catherine Rosfjord & Mike Lunsford, North Carolina's Radon Program

For our second Q&A article, Radonleaders.org contacted Catherine Rosfjord & Mike Lunsford from the North Carolina Radon program. Catherine and Mike presented a state program update at the last Region 4 Radon Meeting. After a busy NRAM month, they agreed to share their updates with the Radonleaders.org community and talk about some of the great work that has been going on in the state of North Carolina.

Please feel free to post your comment and questions at the bottom of each Q&A articles for further information.

Becoming a Regulatory State:

1. As a non-regulatory state trying to get some rules and regulation in place can you talk a little a bit about the development over the past year to change this and model states you have looked into to give you some sort of direction?
• In 2009, we wrote an in-depth proposal for regulating radon in NC. At that time, we looked at all the states that had radon regulations on the books, but talked in-depth to coordinators in New Mexico and Illinois, mostly because we were able to make contact with individuals who were forthcoming and helpful.
• We then made presentations and received feedback from the NC Radiation Protection Commission (RPC) and the Environmental Surveillance Advisory Committee. The Radiation Protection Commission can adopt rules related to the regulation of radioactive materials.
• RPC submitted to the Attorney General’s Office. The Attorney General’s Office concluded that radon cannot be regulated under the existing language used to regulate radioactive materials and radiation machines. This was due primarily to the wording used to define the Radiation Protection Commission’s regulatory authority. This wording specifically excludes Natural Occurring Radioactive Material (NORM).
• The AG suggested that RPC rewrite the rule and submit to the General Assembly for approval.
• A Radon Work Group was formed within the Environmental Surveillance Advisory Committee of the RPC consisting of radon professionals, state agencies, real estate representatives, home building representatives, EPA, etc, to determine if the RPC should have regulatory authority to include radon.
• After review, the Work Group voted to recommend to the RPC that they pursue regulatory authority.
• At the July 2011 RPC Meeting, the Radon Working Group made the recommendation and the RPC voted to “Seek Regulatory authority for Indoor Radon in North Carolina”.
• Many arguments were made in the report from the Radon Working Group to the RPC supporting the Working Group’s position. The argument that Radon’s designation of NORM in the environment falls within the accepted definition, but the potential and real concentration of radon in buildings could arguably be categorized as Technologically Enhanced Natural Occurring Radioactive Material (TENORM). This, combined with the health risk data provided and the Commission’s authority to protect public health from the effects of radioactive material seemed to have a positive impact on the decision.
2. You mentioned two actions taken after the initial ruling by the Attorney General Office, is there any update that you can give us toward these two things?
• Since the July 2011 RPC Meeting, the Radiation Protection Section was part of a reorganization of various departments. This resulted in the section going into the Department of Health and Human Services which required the RPC to be put under the new department. This in turn moved legislative efforts to the new department. The Radon Working Group Chairman is seeking council from the new department’s legislative liaison on how to proceed.

Partnership:

1. Can you highlight two partnerships that your state has developed during the past year?
• NC Healthy Homes: Joint outreach program with NC Dept of Environmental Health to provide test kits, brochures, and support for HUD pilot project integrating lead testing with radon testing and outreach to expectant mothers.
• NC Advisory Committee on Cancer Coordination and Control Plan: Made an argument of including an objective within the Lung Cancer section of the plan to state specific radon exposure reduction goals for the plan.
2. How have these partnerships helped and what plans do you have to make them a successful and sustainable partnership?
• The Healthy Homes partnership has allowed us to reach a greater number of people with radon information and many citizens have had their homes tested for radon at a reduced cost. This partnership has been easy to sustain as we have been contacted by additional Healthy Homes initiatives in different parts of the state.
• We are still working with the NC Advisory Committee on Cancer Coordination and Control for inclusion of Radon in their lung cancer prevention objectives Currently all objectives in lung cancer prevention center around smoking cessation. Our objective in 2012 is to include at least one objective in this section of the plan with the Radon message.

Outreach:

1. What approaches did North Carolina Radon Program and its partners take during 2012 National Radon Action Month to spread the radon message?
• We partnered with Cooperative Extension offices this year by first offering an online training for extension agents last fall and then providing county offices with free radon test kits and PSA materials to distribute to their local media outlets. This was highly successful and we have not yet tallied all the presentations and media contacts the Cooperative Extension offices had. We gave away free radon test kits on our website.
2. Could you please update us on the success that this year’s efforts have shown thus far?
• We gave away 2,000 test kits on our website and distributed 2,400 test kits to Cooperative Extension offices and County Health Departments to give away.
• Eight presentations were requested from our office and were given in various locations across the state.
• There were numerous media contacts including News Releases, PSAs, articles in newspapers, and a report on WSOC-Charlotte.
• We hosted the Poster Contest and had an award ceremony at the Museum of Natural History. The Museum also displayed the winning posters and allowed us to have an informational kiosk.
• We also had an informational booth at a NC Lung Cancer Partnership 5k Race.
• Governor’s Proclamation of NRAM.
3. Will any of these outreach projects continue during the year and if not are there any other outreach plans?
• We do outreach by offering presentations to county Cooperative Extension offices and any other interested group throughout the year.
• Programs were scheduled in March as a direct result of this NRAM effort.

Region Meeting:

1. How was your experience presenting at the Region 4 States Radon Meeting and what did you take away from it that you think could be beneficial to your program?
• We always enjoy sharing our experiences and hearing from the other states at the Regional Meeting.
• This year’s discussions regarding green buildings and weatherization programs for affordable housing were especially interesting. We have had some contact with some of the organizations contracted to do the weatherization and radon testing in HUD homes in NC. It was beneficial to have the background on these weatherization grants before entering into those discussions.