Radon & Lung Cancer: Keeping Your Kids Safe from the Ground Up

While we are trying to reduce exposure to toxic chemicals, we often overlook potentially one of the greatest risks in our home – radon, a radioactive gas.  The  US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that radon is the number one cause of lung cancer among non-smokers. Surprising, right? I would have guessed secondhand smoke. The EPA estimates that radon causes 21,000 lung cancer deaths each year.

Another cause for concern is that recent research suggests that children who live in homes with high radon levels may have an increased risk of developing childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). The research found that children exposed to “intermediate” levels of radon had a 21% higher risk of developing ALL as compared to children exposed to the lowest levels. Children exposed to the highest levels of radon relative to those with the least exposure had a 63% greater risk of developing ALL.

Plus, January is National Radon Action Month, so this is the perfect time to talk about radon and what you can do to reduce your exposure.

But first, you are probably thinking what the heck is radon? Radon is an odorless, tasteless, invisible gas produced by the decay of radium. Radium, in turn, is produced by the decay of naturally-occurring uranium present in soil, rock, and ground water. Certain areas in the United States have a higher potential to have elevated radon levels because rocks with higher uranium levels are located in those areas, but radon can be found all over the US. The EPA estimates that nearly 1 out of every 15 homes in the US has elevated radon levels. The Office of the Surgeon General recommends that all homes be tested for radon.

As a gas, radon escapes rocks and soils by moving through what are known as soil pore spaces and rock fractures. Outside, radon gas isn’t a problem because it disperses. Typically, the concentration of radon in outdoor air is 0.4 picoCuries per liter of air (pCi/L). But radon in homes and other buildings can be a problem. Your home’s air pressure is usually lower than air pressure in the soil around your home, so your house can suck in radon like a vacuum through cracks, utility entries, seams, and other openings in the foundation, as well as from uncovered soil in crawl spaces. Radon can be a problem indoors because it can build up to unhealthy levels. The EPA recommends that you take action to reduce radon levels if testing shows radon above 4 pCi/L.

Radon is a very heavy gas, so it tends to accumulate in basements or at the floor level. Thus, occupied basements, houses on slabs and houses with rooms cut into hillsides are the ones most likely to have high radon levels.

Because radon is odorless and colorless, it has been called the silent killer. Not only are there no signs that radon is present in your home, there are no signs that you are being exposed. It causes no symptoms that you might notice and the harmful effects are delayed many years. Once exposed, there is no treatment.

Radon can also enter your home through your water if the water supply contains dissolved radon. Radon enters water as bubbles from radium decaying next to the water. These bubbles easily escape when the water is agitated, so most surface water supplies have low radon concentrations. You also ingest some radon when you ingest water. However, the risk of lung cancer resulting from inhaling radon is far greater than the risk of stomach cancer from ingesting water with radon in it.

If your home’s water supply is from a municipal system, the mixing, treatment, and long residence time (the time it takes the water to make it from the treatment plant to your home) result in dilution and release of radon. By the time it reaches your tap, it is highly unlikely that you will have radon present, unless it is a very small public municipal system. However, a home that is supplied by a private groundwater well may have radon enter the home from the well water. But, radon in water can be readily treated.

If radon gas is present in your home, every time you inhale you get a dose of radioactivity in your lung. Radon gas decays. When radon decays, small radioactive particles are released. If you inhale radon (or the particles), once in the lungs, the tiny particles damage the cells that line the lung. These particles release small burst of energy as they decay. These small bursts of ionizing radiation can affect DNA, leading to mutations that may turn cancerous. The latency period for developing lung cancer from radon exposure is twenty to thirty years.

The increased risk of lung cancer from radon exposure is greater if you smoke. But even if you don’t smoke, elevated concentrations of radon in the home pose a fairly significant increased risk of cancer. For a home with 4 pCi/L, the lifetime risk of cancer is 7.3 out of 1,000 persons. That is really high, surprisingly high, especially when you compare it with the 1 in 1,000,000 risk factor generally used to regulate contaminants in our environment. And, “scientists are more certain about radon risks than from most other cancer-causing substances.”

Research has not yet determined whether children are at a higher risk from radon than adults. However, some children’s health advocates have suggested that children may be more sensitive because they have higher respiratory rates than adults. Also, the EPA has determined that exposure to carcinogens in the first two years of life is more significant, and a factor of 10 should be applied. Data generated from Japanese atomic bomb survivors suggests that exposure before the age of twenty years may have more significant health effects than exposure later in life. The American Academy of Pediatrics concludes that “until further data are available, it seems prudent to assume that the risks to children are at least as large as those determined in occupational studies.”

The EPA has developed a map that generally predicts radon levels in three general areas of the United States. But, you cannot use the geologic potential to determine the actual radon levels in your home. Some overlying soils with low uranium levels nonetheless have high radon levels, and vice versa. You must test your house to determine actual radon levels.

 The good news? It is easy and relatively inexpensive to test for radon. You can purchase do-it-yourself kits from your local hardware store or online. The National Radon Program Services at Kansas State Univ. has test kits available for online purchase (you must create free account to access). Also, many state programs offer free or low cost test kits – just contact your state’s radon office.

Short term and long term test kits exist. A short term test is typically exposed to your home’s air two to seven days before being sent to a lab, and long term tests are usually exposed 90 days. If you buy a kit from a hardware store or online, make sure the test kit is state-certified. A study by Consumer Reports found long term tests more reliable than short term test kits. Radon levels can vary day to day, so a 90 day exposure period gives a more accurate reading of a home’s average radon level. Of the seven short term kits tested by Consumer Reports, only the RTCA charcoal canister was accurate enough for Consumer Reports to recommend. Two of the kits, Accustar’s Short Term LS Radon Test Kit CLS 100i and Kidde’s Radon Detection Kit 442020, under reported radon levels by almost 40%! Of long term test kits, Consumer Reports recommends, and found most accurate, Accustar’s Alpha Track Test Kit AT100. Of course, follow the instructions, including maintaining closed house conditions. You can also hire a trained contractor to test your home. Contact your state’s radon office for a list of qualified contractors.

If your child is in a daycare or school, ask if the building has been checked for radon. A lot of times daycares are in the basements of buildings, and bottom level rooms and basements are more likely to have high radon levels than other rooms. Of course, keep in mind that the lung cancer risk from radon exposure is related to both the radon level and the length of time one is exposed. Consequently, if the exposure time is short, even large radon concentrations may not contribute to a significant risk.

If the testing determines that radon levels are elevated in your home, then fix the problem. Radon reduction systems can reduce radon levels in your home by as much as 99%. EPA recommends fixing your home if one long term test, or two short term tests, show radon concentration levels above 4 pCi/L (or 0.016 working levels, also used in the industry). However, there is no safe level of radon established. EPA also recommends that you consider fixing your home if the radon level detected is above 2 pCi/L. If you have a radon problem and you decide to fix it, the EPA’s Consumer’s Guide to Radon Reduction has a good discussion of available technologies and how they work for different foundation types.

If you have determined that elevated levels of radon are present in your drinking water, then you can fix it before it enters your home with a point of entry system. A point of entry system will usually consist of granular activated carbon filters or aeration. Granular activated carbon may be less expensive to install, but the filters can collect radioactivity thereby necessitating special handling upon disposal. An aeration system may cost more to install. A point of use system is also an option and will remove radon at the tap, so from your drinking water. However, a point of use system will not eliminate exposure to radon escaping from other water uses in the home.

Finally, sealing cracks and other openings to prevent radon from entering the home is an easy approach to radon reduction. However, the EPA does not recommend the use of sealing alone as a method to reduce indoor radon concentrations. Sealing has not been shown to lower radon levels significantly or consistently. Identifying and permanently sealing all the places where radon is entering is difficult. A home’s normal settling will also open new ways for radon to enter.

Radon may sound scary, but it is easy to test for it and inexpensive, and the solutions are relatively easy. And it isn’t just about living green, but about keeping your kids and yourself safe. From the ground up.

Children’s pajamas and flame retardants

First, let’s understand that pajamas for children need to meet certain flammability requirements to prevent the risk injury from fires. For the most part, the risk is a loose sleeve or pant cuff catching an open flame, such as a candle. So, sleepwear intended for children between the ages of 9 months and 14 years must meet specific flammability requirements. Note that sleepwear for children under the age of 9 months is not subject to the requirement. This is because babies have limited mobility, are not expected to be unsupervised for long, and are not likely to catch a sleeve or pant cuff on an open flame.

If you are buying sleepwear for children between the ages of 9 months and 14 years, whether you have chemical flame retardants depends on what you buy. The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) considers flame retardant treated pajamas to be safe. Generally, the chemicals used on pajamas or pajama fabrics include chlorinated and brominated flame retardants, inorganic flame retardants such as antimony oxides, and phosphate-based compounds. In the 1970s, the CPSC banned brominated Tris and removed chlorinated Tris from being used on children’s pajamas after they were found to mutate DNA and identified as probable human carcinogens. These chemicals were removed from children’s sleepwear after it was found that children were exposed from their treated sleepwear. So, these two particular chemicals won’t be used, but what is actually used on pajamas is difficult to discover: just try asking a retailer what particular flame retardant is used on any particular item of sleepwear.

Unfortunately, chlorinated and brominated flame retardants are contaminating the environment and accumulating in the human body. For example, polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) have been linked to damage to the nervous and reproductive systems and impairing thyroid function. And you generally can’t tell what flame retardant is being used on any particular clothing item. And you can’t really wash the flame retardants out. The regulations require that the fabrics demonstrate their flame resistance after being laundered at least 50 times.

But you can avoid flame retardants in pajamas and still have pajamas that are safe from the risk of fire.

To meet the regulatory flammability requirements, children’s sleepwear must either pass certain flammability tests, or be tight fitting and meet certain specifications as to dimensions. This means that your child’s pajamas either have flame retardants added or are snug-fitting and probably free of flame retardants. So, you can have snug fitting pajamas without chemical flame retardants and be safer from the risk of fire.

To tell the difference check the fabric content. Look at the label and see what is identified as the primary fabric used. If the item is sleepwear and it is made of a synthetic fiber, it has flame retardants. All synthetic materials have flame retardants added. The issue for synthetic fabrics is whether the sleepwear is “chemically treated” or not. Only some sleepwear is “chemically treated” with flame retardants. Chemically treated fabrics have a chemical flame retardant added to the sleepwear. These sleepwear items include nylon and acetate fabrics.

However, most synthetic fiber sleepwear has a flame retardant inserted into the fabric fiber, including most polyester fabrics, as opposed to the fabric being “chemically treated” with a flame retardant. Fiber with flame retardants inserted into the fabric fiber are considered chemically stable. These manufacturers may claim that the sleepwear is not treated with a chemical flame retardant, and that’s true. The sleepwear is not “chemically treated.” But that doesn’t mean it is free of flame retardants. If children’s sleepwear is synthetic, flame retardant is present, whether the fabric is treated with flame retardant or the flame retardant is bonded to the fiber.

To avoid flame retardants in children’s sleepwear altogether (other than making your own) you can purchase snug fitting natural fiber pajamas, such as cotton. (And to be green and avoid pesticide residues, buy organic natural fiber cotton with low-impact dyes.) Sleepwear that is snug fitting meets flammability standards by being tight enough to a child’s body that no stray sleeve can catch fire, and also by not allowing extra air between the fabric and the skin to promote the fire’s growth if accidentally started. How can you tell if the cotton sleepwear in question is flame retardant free? Look for the hang tag that says “must be snug fitting” and “not flame resistant.” Last year, Costco had some fabulous organic, snug-fitting, flame retardant free pajamas. Snug fitting natural fiber pajamas are also available at Target, Gymboree, New Jammies, and many others. (The author has no relationship whatsoever with any of the previously mentioned companies…other than she has shopped at them.)

But be warned. It isn’t enough to just look for natural fibers. Some natural fibers are actually treated with chemical flame retardants. These are generally sold as “flame resistant cotton” and generally do not have the hang tag that says “must be snug fitting.” Instead, these pajamas will generally be labeled as flame resistant cotton.  You may see cotton sleepwear advertised as containing Proban, which is made from tetrakis(hydroxymethyl)phosphonium chloride, or THPC. Studies have shown low migration from sleepwear, but the chemical used in the process is associated with genetic abnormalities and damage to the liver, skin and nervous system. Securest is another name for Proban-treated fabric. If you see flame-resistant 100% cotton, then that cotton has flame retardants. If you don’t want flame retardants, then always look for the specific key phrases “must be snug fitting” and “not flame resistant.”

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