HUD awards $500,000 to UND for radon education

GRAND FORKS – Researchers at UND’s School of Medicine and Health Science have been awarded nearly a half a million dollars to find ways to persuade more homeowners to address radon levels in their homes.

A $486,377 Healthy Homes Technical Studies grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development will fund several projects to educate the public on radon, according to an SMHS press release.

“Because the threat is not visible, it’s not something that people readily appreciate and act upon,” read a statement attributed to Department of Population Health Chair Gary Schwartz. “We often say it’s like trying to convince your 10-year-old to save for retirement.”

Uranium deposits in North Dakota’s soil release high amounts of colorless, odorless, tasteless – and radioactive – radon gas into the air constantly, giving the state some of the highest radon levels in the United States.

According to data

provided by Grand Forks Public Health

to the Herald in January, radon causes 21,000 lung cancer deaths in the U.S. annually.

Despite that, it remains a challenge to persuade homeowners to pursue radon mitigation strategies or even test for radon in their homes.

The grant will pay for researchers to engage North Dakotans directly to identify how to persuade residents to test for radon and address it in their homes.

Researchers in the Department of Population Health have been working on this issue for years, and have developed responses like a smartphone app to inform users about radon.

New projects funded via the HUD grant are expected to begin toward September.

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