PA FACTS
Home Products Training Services

 

The Radon Division of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection conducts an aggressive outreach program which is primarily funded through an EPA State Indoor Radon Grant which is applied for and managed by the division. One of the programs of great interest is the Newborn Program.

The Newborn Program is a program that assists parents of newly born infants to identify and address potential levels of elevated radon gas in their homes. This program was set up in 1994. Currently only 51hospitals participate in the program. The hospitals dispense an information packet that informs parents about the health hazards associated with elevated levels of radon, and contains a coupon for a free radon test kit. Approximately one third of the test results are in excess of the EPA recommended action level of 4 pCi/L. Not all hospitals participate in this program, does yours?

General PA Facts

An estimated 40% of Pennsylvania homes have radon levels greater than the EPA guideline of 4 pCi/L
49% of Pennsylvania's 67 counties have a predicted average indoor level greater than 4 pCi/L.
What is the average in your area?
About 270,000 single homes in Pennsylvania, with about 750,000 occupants, are expected to have radon levels greater than 20 pCi/L (over five times greater than the EPA action level of 4 pCi/L)
Only about10% of homes in Pennsylvania have been tested
If your initial radon test result is greater than 100 pCi/L, DEP will provide a free confirmatory testing. All Pennsylvanians who have tested their homes or other buildings for radon and found screening levels greater than 100 pCi/L, are entitled to receive a free short-term confirmation test kit from the Bureau of Radiation Protection. This test kit will be mailed to those eligible by express mail. For this free service, please call 1-800-237-2366 or 717-783-3594.
Post Mitigation Confirmatory Testing - If an active (fan-powered) radon mitigation system has been installed in your home, within the last year, you are entitled to receive a free, long-term radon test kit (Alpha Track Detector). Please call the PADEP at 1-800-237-2366 for further details.
Radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer, it is estimated that lung cancer deaths per year in Pennsylvania due to residential radon exposure is between 860 - 3,800

Courtesy of PA DEP

Do you know... In PA an individual may receive approx. 270mrem from normal background radiation. Background radiation comes from space, air, ground, the building material of our homes, schools and work places, consumer products and even our own bodies - See below. Radon is responsible for more than half of our background exposure.

The Pennsylvania Radon Story by Thomas M. Gerusky
Abstract

How much exposure do you receive each year?   

PA DEP Radon Update - Summer 2003

A Pennsylvania Citizen's guide to Radon

PA Home Buyers and Sellers Guide to radon

Go back one page

         Last modified: February 28, 2004