Results of a study of the rural northwest Iowa community of Akron show more than 80 percent of the homes there have radon levels significantly above the levels recommended safe by the E-P-A. University of Iowa professor and researcher, Barcey Levey, helped with the study. LevEy, who is a doctor and director of the Iowa Research Network at the U-I’s College of Medicine, says the results show what the entire state is facing when it comes to radon. Levey and Akron doctor, Cynthia Wolff, also gathered information beyond the actual radon levels….
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Radon is an odorless, colorless gas created by natural uranium in the earth and the second-leading cause of lung cancer in the United States. . Levey says they found the radon wasn’t particular in which homes it got into……
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Some homes in Akron had levels 10-20 times the recommended levels, and one test showed the home to have a level of 120. Levy says it is best to have a mitigation system professionally installed.
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Levy says Akron is a small sample, but she says it shows how big a problem radon can be across Iowa.
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Akron only had one company that did radon mitigation when the testing began, but Levy says other companies starting doing the work once the high levels were discovered. Many banks in the Akron area began offering low-interest loans for mitigation systems.
The Akron study was published this month in the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine.