The Other Hockey Stick: the EPA's Radon Scam

Every structure that is sold in the United States is generally required to undergo a "radon inspection." This inspection is intended to detect the presence of an odorless, colorless, invisible gas that government bureaucrats claim is harmful to humans.

According to the EPA, "Exposure to radon in the home is responsible for an estimated 20,000 lung cancer deaths each year [and it] is a health hazard with a simple solution."

Also featured prominently on the EPA's website is a 2005 statement from the Surgeon General that states, "Indoor radon is the second-leading cause of lung cancer in the United States... It's important to know that this threat is completely preventable."

But is radon truly a menace? Or is it simply a made-up industry populated with bureaucrats, inspectors, manufacturers and distributors all of whom profit from the regulations?

If you sell a home and the resulting radon inspection yields a reading of 4 picocuries (pCi) per liter of air, you'll probably be on the hook for the "abatement". This means having a licensed installer rig up some PVC pipe, a vent and an electric fan in your basement while charging you a grand or two for his troubles.

But where did this magical 4 pCi figure come from? Curiously, a 1994 EPA report called Facts Concerning Environmental Radon stated that, "it has not yet been possible to generate convincing data on increased risk at or below 4-8 pCi/liter."

Furthermore, the EPA's proclamation that radon represents the second leading cause of lung cancer after smoking is misleading at best. Consider these two quotes from the public summary of the EPA report Biological Effects of Ionizing Radiation VI (also known as BEIR VI).

The BEIR VI committee's preferred central estimates... are that about 1 in 10 or 1 in 7 of all lung cancer deaths-amounting to ... about 15,400 to 21,800 per year in the United States- can be attributed to radon among ever-smokers and never-smokers together...

...The number of radon-related lung cancer deaths resulting from (our analysis) could be as low as 3000 or as high as 32,000. Most of the radon-related lung cancers occur among ever-smokers, and because of the synergism between smoking and radon, many of the cancers in ever-smokers could be prevented by either tobacco control or reduction of radon exposure.

"Ever-smokers" represents anyone who has ever smoked, regardless of age, duration/intensity of their smoking, or how long ago they quit. The second quote highlights the reality behind the "preferred central estimates": most deaths pinned on radon actually were related to tobacco usage!

Put simply, "the obvious but unstated conclusion of the EPA's BEIR VI report is clear... [they] don't know if there is a quantifiable risk to healthy people from the levels of radon they suggest are dangerous..."

There have never been tests of the effects of varying amounts of radon in a typical home setting. The only tests originated in mine shafts in which radon was simply one of several dozen radioactive elements present. Based upon these measures, an arbitrary threshold of 4 pCi was established by bureaucrats who extrapolated the miners' environment to those found in homes.

In other words, there has never been a verified case where home radon was linked to an occurrence of cancer. Not one case. Even a 2001 long-term study in Sweden, published in Epidemiology, concluded that "among never-smokers residential radon exposure may be more harmful for those exposed to environmental tobacco smoke." In other words, it was difficult to characterize risk for radon along as opposed to second-hand smoke.

While the EPA crows that radon is the second-leading cause of cancer and that thousands die each year from radon, it is virtually impossible to tell whether radon or exposure to tobacco caused lung cancer!

And from these fabrications sprung countless regulations, bureaucrats, businesses, inspectors and agencies. A billion-dollar-plus industry.

All to solve a problem that you can't see or smell and that no one ever knew existed until 1984. In fact, don't be surprised to see Al Gore get involved with radon mitigation as this whole warming thing implodes. You see, the EPA employs 17,000 people and these bureaucrats enjoy nothing more than inventing new regulations with which they can control our lives. 17,000 people devoted to enslaving you to the cults of global warming climate change, radon and heaven knows what else.

That is why, when I'm elected President, the EPA will be limited to no more than 12 employees. I figure the fewer the bureaucrats, the less unconstitutional garbage they'll come up with.


Hat tips: City Data and Natural Handyman.