SOUTHERN COLORADO — January is National Radon Action Month and El Paso County Public Health Center is encouraging you to test your home for radon.
According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, radon is the second biggest cause of lung cancer and about 21,000 people die each year from radon-caused lung cancer.
Nearly 50% of Colorado homes have this colorless, radioactive gas. It may be hard to detect if your home has radon without a testing kit. Therefore, the El Paso County Health Center is using this month to remind people to get their homes tested. The reason radon is so common in Colorado is because of the mineral-rich soil in our state.
“In El Paso County specifically, 48.8% of the homes that have been tested have had elevated levels of radon gas and the reason for that is radon comes from uranium and there’s a lot of uranium in the soils in Colorado,” said Roy Kroeger, environmental health director at El Paso County Health and Environment. “When you put a home on top of that soil, it basically creates a place for that radon gas to accumulate and once it gets in your home, you’re in there breathing it and that’s where the issue arises from.”
Radon kits are inexpensive and can be purchased at local hardware stores. Be sure to purchase a kit that is certified by the National Radon Proficiency Program.
Or you can find discounted kits here.
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