Minnesota Department of Health Radon Update
Contributed by Dan Tranter
Our two primary education and outreach campaigns are our local partnerships and a marketing campaign.
During fall-winter 2020, MDH directly purchased and distributed 9,192 test kits to 102 partners. These partners are mostly city and county health departments but also include housing, non-profit, community, and medical organizations. We also distributed test kits directly through our specific outreach projects. This figure does not include the number of kits purchased through mn.radon.com.
A large media campaign was completed in winter 2020 utilizing radio, TV, web, highway billboards, and Pandora streaming. There were about 900 spots purchased. A MDH press release was issued in January 8, 2020 with a focus on the new radon mitigation disparity story maps published by MDH. MDH staff were interviewed by 9 media outlets. There were 4 social media posts through Facebook that were promoted (paid) to increase reach. In addition, we sent resources to our partners, and some sent their own releases or contacted media. There were 33 media stories we observed during the winter, and there likely were other stories that we did not get alerted about. This marketing linked to our mn.radon.com website used. There were about 6,000 kits purchased during the winter quarter through the site, which is about 8 times higher than the typical quarterly order figures.
MDH will continue the partnerships (including test kit distribution) and the marketing campaign in 2021. We also conduct other education, technical support, policy support and research work.
Daniel Tranter
Supervisor | Indoor Air Unit
Minnesota Department of Health
Office: 651-201-4618
United States