From Name
Kevin Stewart

Hello David,
 
In any case, you are right to stick to the protocol and advise
the follow-up test and if initial results are confirmed, recommending
mitigation.
 
However, radon is not responsible for anything beyond cancer,
and those cases, nearly all of the time, would be lung cancer.  Cancer
requires some latency period to develop, so radon in a house would not be
expected to cause cancer immediately upon beginning occupancy.  Cancers
can originate from many different causes, so someone could be presenting with
cancer symptoms at any time, including when just moving into a new environment.
 
As to non-cancer health effects, you are wise to help the client
recognize that one of any number of other agents may be at work here, while you
simultaneously recognize the limits of your expertise.  Of course, it is
important for the people to assess carefully whether the illnesses they are reporting
are linked in time and space with their occupancy of the building.  It is
possible to confuse location at onset with location of cause.
 
Given that neighbors also report experiencing unusual acute
symptoms, other possibilities include nearby industry, building materials used
in the development, wastes on site, water contamination, etc., etc.  There’s
nothing wrong with further brainstorming here, so long as people know that actual
evidence would be needed to “prove” an association.  Apart from
someone (not you, unless you have suitable credentials) doing basic
common-sense walkthroughs of the dwellings and their environs, it may be
worthwhile for all of the neighbors to join in obtaining the services of an
indoor air professional or a consulting toxicologist to see if there are any
connections that can be made.
 
Good luck.
 
Yours,
 
Kevin M. Stewart
Director
of Environmental Health
American
Lung Association of the Mid-Atlantic
 
From: International Web
Resource for Radon Professionals [mailto:RADONPROFESSIONALS@LIST.UIOWA.EDU] On
Behalf Of David Rhodes
Sent: Tuesday, April 05, 2011 1:15 PM
To: RADONPROFESSIONALS@LIST.UIOWA.EDU
Subject: [RNPROF] Sick people suspect radon is the cause...?
 
Hello,
 
Just
received a phone call from Lake Havasu on the border of CA and AZ. The
homeowner said she and her husband were having terrible health problems after
recently moving into their home. He is having lung related illness,
while she was having stomach/digestive problems. She fears that she will have
to move out in order to improve - stating that some of her neighbors
have had to move for similar problems. Her doctor has yet to find a cause.
 
Concerned
that radon might be the cause, she did a radon test herself and found 19 pCi/L
in the basement of the home. The homeowner called me to see if radon might be
the problem. She also said she found information on the internet about radon
causing other illnesses, like stomach problems and other cancers.
 
My
initial response about the radon in her home was to test again to confirm the
elevated radon. I let her know that 19 pCi/L was high and mitigation should be
seriously considered. I was hesitant to answer or speculate about health
issues.
 
How
should I respond to this type of question?  Are there other "radon
related" health issues that take on different forms? I was thinking maybe
mold, chemicals, or other soil gases might be the cause - but I'm no doctor.
 
David
Rhodes
Flagstaff,
AZ
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