State Radon Expert Answers Questions at Boulder Hill Elementary

There were enough chairs set up in the gym for hundreds of people. But it was an intimate audience of about 50 who turned up Wednesday night to hear state expert Patrick Daniels talk about radon, its harmful effects, and what can be done to make school buildings like Boulder Hill safe.

Daniels, the head of the Illinois Emergency Management Agency’s radon program, is in town to help the Oswego School District determine whether there are high enough radon levels in Boulder Hill Elementary to pose a health risk to students, teachers and staff.

The district won’t know that information until later today, when the results of a new radon test of the entire school building are released. District leaders hired two companies—Radon Detection Specialists of Burr Ridge and Radon Testers Inc. of Wheaton—to perform the tests, which they did over the last three days.

The school board has called a special meeting for tonight at 6 p.m. at Oswego East High School to go over the results, and Daniels will be there to lend his expertise.

On Wednesday, Daniels spoke for about 40 minutes, and then answered questions for close to an hour. He explained how radon forms—it’s a natural by-product of the decay of uranium in the soil—and how it seeps into our houses and buildings: the pressure differences outside and inside create a vacuum of sorts that sucks radon out of the ground and traps it.

Radon has been definitively linked to lung cancer, since it attaches itself to dust particles, which are then breathed in. Radon exposure has been named the #2 cause of lung cancer in the country, behind smoking, but Daniels said it takes long-term exposure—as in years—for radon to build up to harmful levels in the lungs.

Radon has not been definitively linked to any other form of cancer, Daniels said.

Since we spend most of our indoor time in our own homes, Daniels said, they are the most important places to check for radon. More than half the homes in Kendall County have failed radon tests, meaning they have returned results above the federal and state standard, he said.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recommends taking action when levels reach 4.0 picocuries per liter of air. But, he said, it is impossible to make any building “radon-proof.” The atmosphere contains at least some amount of radon at all times, he said.

But that doesn’t mean the district shouldn’t test for radon, and mitigate if the levels come in higher than 4.0 picocuries per liter, he said. In fact, Daniels is working with the district to secure state money to test all 25 of its buildings.

Superintendent Dan O’Donnell said the rate would likely be one building a month, and the first round of tests would take a school year to complete. Daniels recommended testing each building once every five years.

Daniels did talk about the first two radon tests conducted at Boulder Hill, in May and June, by David Sloman, a contractor hired by architecture firm Wight and Company. Sloman, it was later revealed, was not licensed by the state to perform radon tests, and performed them incorrectly, with the HVAC system shut down.

Daniels said those first two tests, which found high radon levels in five of the school’s classrooms, should be considered invalid and discarded. A third test, performed in July by Radon Detection Specialists, found no radon levels above the state standard, and Daniels said that is the only valid test result he has seen.

Parents, teachers and other community members asked several probing questions, and all said they were concerned for the health and safety of those who come to the school every day. Dawn Augesen said she knows one teacher at the school who has lung cancer, and teaches in the same classroom as another who died of the disease.

“I’m concerned for the staff we’ve all grown to love,” she said. “The people who have come here for 10 or 15 years, six to seven days a week, those are the people I’m concerned for.”

Daniels said it would be very difficult to determine whether radon exposure in the school building contributed to those cases of lung cancer. Most radon exposure, he said, takes place in private homes, and he would need lifetime exposure data from both teachers to be certain.

The school district expects to receive the results of the latest round of tests by noon today, O’Donnell said. Tonight’s special meeting begins at 6 p.m. and is open to the public. The first day of school at Boulder Hill Elementary is Aug. 24.