As a father of four, Tim Briggs considered it common sense that schools would test for radon.
As a state lawmaker, he was appalled that every school doesn’t, and he has made it his mission to do something about it.
A months-long Tribune-Review investigation found that most schools in Southwestern Pennsylvania do not regularly test for radon, the odorless, colorless, radioactive gas found here in some of the highest concentrations in the nation.
At risk is the health and safety of the state’s nearly 1.7 million school children — in addition to teachers and staff — who spend upward of 1,000 hours a year in classrooms, said Briggs, a Montgomery County Democrat.
“You don’t hear anything about (radon) until someone you know is affected by it,” he said, “and by then it’s too late.”
“You don’t hear anything about (radon) until someone you know is affected by it, and by then it’s too late.”
— State Rep. Tim Briggs
Briggs has introduced five bills in the past decade requiring school districts to test for the gas, whose deadly effects can emerge decades later in the form of lung cancer in some people, according to medical experts. Each time those bills failed, Briggs vowed he wouldn’t give up until he sees laws on Pennsylvania’s books like those in other states.
Radon is the second-leading cause of lung cancer after smoking, according to the American Lung Association. It seeps into basements through cracks in walls, foundations and other openings.
Medical experts link radon to at least 21,000 lung cancer deaths annually nationwide and more than 1,400 in Pennsylvania, which has the third-highest levels of radon in the country, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Children are particularly vulnerable.
For them, the risk of developing radon-induced cancer later in life is twice as high as adults with the same exposure because youngsters’ quickly changing bodies and rapid breathing rates translate into larger doses of radiation, researchers found.
Children exposed to radon plus tobacco smoke are 20 times more likely to develop lung cancer, researchers found.
Yet testing requirements have failed to gain traction in the General Assembly and among many school districts.
According to the Trib’s investigation:
• Requests filed under the state’s Right to Know Law with school districts in a four-county region of Southwestern Pennsylvania revealed that nearly 70% had not tested for radon in the past five years, the interval used by states with school radon testing laws in place and by Briggs in each of his failed bills.
• Many of the districts that had not tested are located in communities where state environmental monitoring identified dangerously high average radon levels, according to a review of state records.
• No records of radon testing at any time in the past were maintained by many of the school districts surveyed.
• Although school districts are required to report to the state Department of Education about a number of safety issues, no records regarding radon testing or repairs to mitigate high levels of radon are maintained by the department.
• Some school officials say they lack funds needed to test for radon — about $1,500 per building — but groups offering grants to conduct testing say it’s difficult to “give away” the money to districts to complete the work.
• Partisan politics and battles over who will pay for radon testing and mitigation have torpedoed attempts to pass school radon testing bills in Pennsylvania, supporters of the bills contend. Seventeen states have enacted various radon-related laws. Bills introduced in Pennsylvania have died in committee without a hearing or committee vote.
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