Encouraging Radon Progress Numbers for 2012 and 2013
ORIA has two key measures of progress on radon risk reduction. Existing homes mitigated and new homes built with radon-reducing features (radon-resistant). Data on the number of homes mitigated is derived from information on annual radon vent sales provided to ORIA by the manufacturers (Thank you!). Data on the number of new homes with radon-reducing features is contained in an annual report prepared by the National Association of Home Builders’ (NAHB) Housing Innovation Research Labs (HIRL) for ORIA under contract.
Although the data on homes mitigated in 2013 is preliminary, its shaping up to be a good year. The growth in radon vent fan sales from 2012 is expected to be 18%, possibly a bit better. That means an estimated 110,000 homes were mitigated last year. Annual vent fan sales data usually becomes available in January of the following year. You’ll recall that ORIA’s Healthy People 2020 goal is to have 30% of existing homes above the action level mitigated, i.e., 3.1 of the 9.2 million high homes projected to be in existence in 2020.
New homes data typically lags by a year due to survey returns, processing and report preparation. As for new construction, the draft HIRL report for calendar 2012 shows that 84,547 (18.1%) of the 468,500 ground-contact single-family homes built in 2012 included radon-reducing features. Also very encouraging is that about 52,985 (44.6%) of the 84,547 were built in Zone 1 areas. You’ll recall that ORIA’s Healthy People 2020 goal is to have 100% of new homes in Zone 1 built this way.
While these preliminary numbers may change slightly, the good news is that there’s definitely an upward trend for both measures. The nearly three decades long investment in radon by ORIA, and its government and private sector partners, is paying off. If you have questions about these measures, contact Phil Jalbert in IED (jalbert.philip@epa.gov)
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