“It looks like fracking has unearthed an unbargained for and serious cancer risk in peoples’ homes.” John Hopkins study links radon levels in Pennsylvania homes to fracking: “These findings worry us”

Study available free. Click on cover below or link title beneath cover to access PDF.

Increased levels of radon in Pennsylvania homes correspond to onset of fracking, Levels of radon, a known carcinogen, rising since 2004, around the time that drilling for a new type of natural gas well began PUBLIC RELEASE: April 9, 2015

JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY BLOOMBERG SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH

Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health researchers say that levels of radon in Pennsylvania homes – where 42 percent of readings surpass what the U.S. government considers safe – have been on the rise since 2004, around the time that the fracking industry began drilling natural gas wells in the state.

The researchers, publishing online April 9 in Environmental Health Perspectives, also found that buildings located in the counties where natural gas is most actively being extracted out of Marcellus shale have in the past decade seen significantly higher readings of radon compared with buildings in low-activity areas. There were no such county differences prior to 2004. Radon, an odorless radioactive gas, is considered the second-leading cause of lung cancer in the world after smoking.

“One plausible explanation for elevated radon levels in people’s homes is the development of thousands of unconventional natural gas wells in Pennsylvania over the past 10 years,” says study leader Brian S. Schwartz, MD, a professor in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences at the Bloomberg School. “These findings worry us.”

The study, conducted with Pennsylvania’s Geisinger Health System, analyzed more than 860,000 indoor radon measurements included in a Pennsylvania Department of Environment Protection database from 1989 to 2013. Radon levels are often assessed when property is being bought or sold; much of the study data came from such measurements. The researchers evaluated associations of radon concentrations with geology, water source, season, weather, community type and other factors.

Between 2005 and 2013, 7,469 unconventional natural gas wells were drilled in Pennsylvania using hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) to liberate natural gas from shale. …

The disruptive process that brings gas to the surface can also bring heavy metals and organic and radioactive materials such as radium-226, which decays into radon. Most indoor radon exposure has been linked to the diffusion of gas from soil. It is also found in well water, natural gas and ambient air.

Averaged over the whole study period, houses and other buildings using well water had a 21 percent higher concentration of radon than those using municipal water. Houses and buildings located in rural and suburban townships, where most of the gas wells are, had a 39 percent higher concentration of radon than those in cities.

Since radon is naturally occurring, in areas without adequate ventilation — like many basements — radon can accumulate to levels that substantially increase the risk of lung cancer.

The study’s first author is Joan A. Casey, a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health & Society Scholar at the University of California-Berkeley and San Francisco, who earned her PhD at the Bloomberg School in 2014. She says it is unclear whether the excess radon in people’s homes is coming from radium getting into well water through the fracking process, being released into the air near the gas wells or whether natural gas from shale contains more radon than conventional gas and it enters homes through cooking stoves and furnaces. Another possibility, she says, is that in the past decade buildings have been more tightly sealed, potentially trapping radon that gets inside and leading to increased indoor radon levels. In the past, most radon has entered homes through foundation cracks and other openings into buildings.

“By drilling 7,000 holes in the ground, the fracking industry may have changed the geology and created new pathways for radon to rise to the surface,” Casey says. “Now there are a lot of potential ways that fracking may be distributing and spreading radon.”

Natural gas typically travels via pipeline at 10 miles per hour, meaning radon can go statewide in one day. Radon has a half-life of about four days, meaning it has lost 95 percent of its radioactivity after 20 days.

The state of Pennsylvania recently took a comprehensive set of measurements near 34 gas wells, including air samples for radon near four wells, which did not show high levels of the radioactive gas. But the researchers say their study, which looks at levels in hundreds of thousands of homes and other buildings, is a better way to assess the potential cumulative impacts of all the wells.

“I don’t think we can ignore these findings,” Schwartz says. “Our study can be improved by including information that was not available for our analysis, such as whether natural gas is used for heating and cooking, whether there is any radon remediation in the building, and general condition of the building foundation. But these next studies should be done because the number of drilled wells is continuing to increase and the possible problem identified by our study is not going away.”

###

“Predictors of Indoor Radon Concentrations in Pennsylvania 1989-2013” was written by Joan A. Casey, Elizabeth L. Ogburn, Sara G. Rasmussen, Jennifer K. Irving, Jonathan Pollak, Paul A. Locke and Brian S. Schwartz. On April 9, this article will be available to download for free at http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/1409014.

The research was supported in part by the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (R21 ES023675).

2015 04 09 Predictors of Indoor Radon Concentration in Pennsylvania, 1989 to 2013, homes in frac'd areas have higher radon levels

Predictors of Indoor Radon Concentrations in Pennsylvania, 1989–2013 by Joan A. Casey, Elizabeth L. Ogburn, Sara G. Rasmussen, Jennifer K. Irving, Jonathan Pollak, Paul A. Locke, and Brian S. Schwartz1, Received: 30 July 2014; Accepted: 31 March 2015; Advance Publication: 9 April 2015. Environ Health Perspect; DOI:10.1289/ehp.1409014

Abstract

Background: Radon is the second-leading cause of lung cancer worldwide. Most indoor exposure occurs by diffusion of soil gas. Radon is also found in well water, natural gas and ambient air. Pennsylvania has high indoor radon concentrations; buildings are often tested during real estate transactions with results reported to the Department of Environmental Protection (PADEP).

Objectives: To evaluate predictors of indoor radon concentrations.

Methods: Using first floor and basement indoor radon results reported to the PADEP between 1987-2013, we evaluated associations of radon concentrations (ln-transformed) with geology, water source, building characteristics, season, weather, community socioeconomic status, community type and unconventional natural gas development measures based on drilled and producing wells.

Results: Primary analysis included 866,735 first measurements by building, the large majority from homes. The geologic rock layer on which the building sat was strongly associated with radon concentration (e.g., Axemann Formation, median = 365 Bq/m3, IQR = 167-679 vs. Stockton Formation, median = 93 Bq/m3, IQR = 52-178). In adjusted analysis, buildings using well water had 21% higher concentrations (β = 0.191, 95% CI: 0.184, 0.198). Buildings in cities (vs. townships) had lower concentrations (β = -0.323, 95% CI: -0.333, -0.314). When we included multiple tests per building, concentrations declined with repeated measurements over time. Between 2005-2013, 7469 unconventional wells were drilled in Pennsylvania. Basement radon concentrations fluctuated between 1987-2003, but began an upward trend from 2004-2012 in all county categories (p < 0.001), higher levels in counties with ≥100 drilled wells vs. counties with none, and with highest levels in the Reading Prong.

Conclusions: Geologic unit, well water, community, weather and unconventional natural gas development were associated with indoor radon concentrations. Future studies should include direct environmental measurement of radon, and building features unavailable for this analysis.

INTERESTING BITS FROM THE STUDY:

Radium and radon are soluble in water, with concentrations increasing as salinity increases (Warner et al. 2012).

We used models 5 and 6 to evaluate two a priori hypotheses of the possible contribution of unconventional natural gas development on indoor radon concentrations: (1) ambient air could contribute to indoor radon concentrations through the release of radon and radium in the drilling process, primarily in the summer when buildings are more likely to be open; and (2) produced natural gas containing radon could enter building air through use of natural gas for cooking or unvented heating and, given a transit speed of about 16 km/hour in pipelines (Gogolak 1980), all buildings in the state could be affected.

We found a statistically significant association between proximity to unconventional natural gas wells drilled in the Marcellus shale and first floor radon concentration in the summer, with a positive, but attenuated association for basement levels, which suggests a pathway through outdoor ambient air, but does not rule out the possibility of radon moving from the basement to the first floor. [Emphasis added]

Fracking Boom Accompanied by Rise of Silent, Deadly Carcinogen in Homes: Study by Jon Queally, April 9, 2015, enewspf.com
New study contradicts finding released earlier this year by Pennsylvania’s DEP which said radon levels were nothing to worry about

More Cancer-Causing Gas in Homes Near Fracking by Kate Seamons, Arpir 9, 2015, Newser.com

Study: Fracking Boom Accompanied By Rise of Silent, Deadly Carcinogen In HomesA new study contradicts findings released earlier this year by Pennsylvania’s DEP which said radon levels were nothing to worry about by Jon Queally, April 9, 2015, Common Dreams

Researchers in Pennsylvania have discovered that the prevalence of radon, a radioactive and carcinogenic gas, in people’s homes and commercial buildings that are nearer to fracking sites has increased dramatically in the state since the unconventional and controversial gas drilling practice began in the state just over a decade ago.

“By drilling 7,000 holes in the ground, the fracking industry may have changed the geology and created new pathways for radon to rise to the surface.”

Joan A. Casey, John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

….in a study published Thursday in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, scientists compared the results of state-wide radon testing in Pennsylvania to find a significant correlation between unusually high levels of the deadly gas in some buildings (mostly residential homes) and the proliferation of fracking in certain areas of the state.

As State Impact Pennsylvania, the state’s NPR affiliate, reports:

Researchers from Johns Hopkins University analyzed radon readings taken in some 860,000 buildings, mostly homes, from 1989 to 2013 and found that those in rural and suburban areas where most shale gas wells are located had a concentration of the cancer-causing radioactive gas that was 39 percent higher overall than those in urban areas.

It also found that buildings using well water had a 21 percent higher concentration of radon than those served by municipal water systems.

And it showed radon levels in active gas-drilling counties rose significantly starting in 2004 when the state’s fracking boom began.

… “By drilling 7,000 holes in the ground, the fracking industry may have changed the geology and created new pathways for radon to rise to the surface,” Casey says. “Now there are a lot of potential ways that fracking may be distributing and spreading radon.”

According to its summary, the study “found a statistically significant association between proximity to unconventional natural gas wells drilled in the Marcellus shale and first floor radon concentration,” especially during summer months. Though radon is often thought of as seeping up through basement floors, the researchers explain that airborne radon can also enter homes through open windows. After smoking, prolonged exposure to radon gas is considered to be the second-leading cause of lung cancer in the United States.

“One plausible explanation for elevated radon levels in people’s homes is the development of thousands of unconventional natural gas wells in Pennsylvania over the past 10 years,” says study leader Brian S. Schwartz, MD, a professor in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences at the Bloomberg School. “These findings worry us.”

Significantly, the new study—titled “Predictors of Indoor Radon Concentrations in Pennsylvania 1989-2013” (pdf)—directly conflicts with a study released by Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection in January of this year which concluded that there was “little potential for additional radon exposure to the public” due to the widespread fracking activities across the state. Despite the conflicting findings, both DEP and the John Hopkins researchers acknowledged it was difficult to compare the studies as they had dissimilar methodologies and measured radon in significantly different ways.

Though gas industry officials were quick to criticize the findings of the new study…. [Emphasis added]

Rising Levels of Toxic Gas Found in Homes Near Fracking Sites by Maggie Fox and Stacey Naggiar, NBCNews.com, April 10, 2015

Levels of radon, a cancer-causing, radioactive gas, have been rising measurably in Pennsylvania since the controversial practice of fracking started there, researchers reported Thursday.

The study cannot directly link fracking with the raised radon levels. But whatever is going on, residents need to be aware of the rising levels of the gas and take action to get it out of their homes, the researchers say. [Why make innocent homeowners responsible to pay and mitigate risks of health harm and damages caused by the oil and gas industry?  Why are health and energy regulators and “best practices, good neighbour” companies not immediately stopping fracing to monitor and see if radon levels stop rising?]

… Pennsylvania has notoriously high levels of radon, and Joan Casey of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and colleagues set out to assess all the different sources of radon on Pennsylvania homes over time. … But they also noticed a trend over time. Depending on where in the homes the radon was measured, radon levels started inching up in either 2004 or 2006.

And the trend was linked with just how much unconventional drilling was going on. This includes horizontal mines and hydraulic fracturing or fracking.

“Between 2005-2013, 7,469 unconventional wells were drilled in Pennsylvania. Basement radon concentrations fluctuated between 1987-2003, but began an upward trend from 2004-2012 in all county categories,” they wrote.

Radon levels were higher in homes near where there were more of these wells.

“Nearly 300,000 homes had a first basement test result that exceeded the EPA action level,” they wrote. In other words, a level high enough to merit doing something to get the radon out, including the use of fans to flush the gas out of a building.

It is possible that homes just happened to get sealed more tightly over that time and this accounts for the higher radon levels, the researchers said. But it’s also possible that the radon is coming into homes through the air. Fracking involves high-pressure injection of water into shale rock to get the natural gas out. The gas and the water both can then carry radon with them.

People who live in areas near fracking activity often complain that their well water is contaminated. The chemicals released by the fracking process are toxic and the water used in the process must be disposed of safely.

It’s an issue that increasingly concerns regulators. [And are increasingly “secretly editing” and covering those concerns up, with “experts” like the frac panel members on the Council of Canadian Academies (CCA) and others, recommending frac ’em slow and experiment on water, land, air and innocent citizens and children, while repeatedly (decade after decade), recommending monitoring that never happens]

… The industry denies it’s polluting people’s water. Dr. Bernard Goldstein, former dean of the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health and a former Environmental Protection Agency official, says the industry must step up and investigate. [And enabler of the frac harms? Dr. Goldstein was on the CCA frac panel of “experts” that recommended using Canadian families as guinea pigs in the toxic frac experiment]

“Something everyone should be doing is to measure their radon and to cut down on the exposure to radon.” [Why is a health and frac panel “expert” recommending revictimizing the victims of frac health harm by blaming families and making them responsible to mitigate industry’s dangerous, cancerous fracing harms?

“The industry needs to abandon this excuse it hides behind which is, ‘we’ve been doing this for 65 years, why are you worried’?” Goldstein told NBC News. [Industry needs to do one Hell of a lot more than that. It needs to stop, while careful, unbiased, complete study is done world-wide to assess the harms and economic losses followed by appropriate, truthful careful consultation with all families, communities, counties and countries to let them decide if they are willing to carry all the risks and harms, including financial]

“That’s simply wrong. This ought to be treated as if it’s something, like nanotechnology, which is a new thing that needs to be done carefully,” he added. [More of the notoriously awful “expert” frac em slow and study the harms as they go, philosophy?

Meantime, people need to be aware of the risks of radon in general, said Goldstein, who was not involved in the study. [Again, putting the responsibility on the innocent. Why is Goldstein not urging that regulators/companies/elected officials do the warnings and educating, and pay to monitor and mitigate the harms, AND PAY FOR THE HEALTH COSTS?]

“Something everyone should be doing is to measure their radon and to cut down on the exposure to radon, to use radon remediation techniques,” Goldstein said. [UNBELIEVABLE!  Does the “expert” not know what fracing is?  Or what it involves?  Companies keep fracing more and more and more, likely continuously releasing more and more radon via more and more pathways. Why should families/communities be told to move away?  And, where are they to go?  New York and Vermont where fracing is banned? ]

“Some of them are as simple as putting a pipe in the basement all the way up to the ceiling so it exchanges the radon inside for the clean air outside,” he added. “But people who have been living in the house for a long time generally don’t measure their radon. Particularly in those areas of Pennsylvania, there’s naturally occurring high levels of radon, so more people should be measuring.” [Goldstein knows the risk of radon also comes into homes via frac’d gas, via gas stoves over which families are exposed every meal they cook, via well water, every time it is used. Why is he not urging all Americans to throw away their gas appliances, replace them with radon free appliances, and not use their well water to bathe in or clean? Why is Goldstein making home owners responsible for industry poisoning them? Whose pay roll is he on? Emphasis added]

Scientists Link Pennsylvania’s Fracking Boom To Increased Radi0active Gas in Homes by Emily Atkin, April 9, 2015, Think Progress

To make their claims, the Johns Hopkins researchers obtained radon data on nearly 2 million indoor radon tests conducted in the state between 1987 to 2013. Using some of that data, they associated radon levels with the homes’ respective geologies and water sources, along with the season the measurements were taken, fracking activity in the area, and the weather at the time. …

“Radon exposure represents a major environmental health risk, and in addition to future studies to understand the impact of drilling on radon levels, there is continuing need for a radon program in Pennsylvania to track and evaluate radon concentrations and to encourage testing and remediation,” the study said. [Emphasis added]

Study links radon levels in Pennsylvania homes to fracking by The Baltimore Sun, April 9, 2015

A new study by Johns Hopkins researchers links elevated levels of radioactive radon in Pennsylvania homes to the flurry of natural gas wells drilled across the state using the controversial technique known as hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking.”

In a paper published online Thursday in Environmental Health Perspectives, researchers with Hopkins’ Bloomberg School of Public Health reported that radon levels in Pennsylvania homes have been on the rise since 2004, with the greatest increases in counties with the most wells drilled.

Brian S. Schwartz, an environmental health science professor and study leader, called the findings worrisome.

“We found things that actually didn’t give us the reassurance that we thought it would when we started it,” he said.

Pennsylvania already has relatively high levels of radon, a colorless, odorless gas. Produced by the decay of uranium, a radioactive mineral found in most soils, the gas seeps into homes and buildings and can reach dangerous levels in poorly ventilated areas.

Long-term exposure to radon gas can increase a person’s chances of getting cancer. Indeed, federal health officials say radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer, after smoking.

Working with Pennsylvania’s Geisinger Health System, the researchers analyzed more than 860,000 indoor radon measurements collected by Pennsylvania’s Department of Environment Protection from 1989 to 2013. They checked the gas readings against a variety of factors, including underlying rock layers, community wealth and weather.

The study found that buildings relying on well water had higher indoor radon readings than those on municipal water. They also discovered that summertime first-floor readings tended to be higher in homes relatively close to fracked gas wells, compared with those farther away.

Though there could be other explanations, Schwartz said, the findings appear to be linked to the more than 7,000 gas wells that have been fracked in the state in the past decade. …

Marcellus shale is known to contain uranium, the researchers note, and the flowback water and drilling wastes can contain elevated levels of radium, which can produce radon. They also suggest radon could get into buildings via the natural gas piped in for heating and cooking.

Pennsylvania recently released its own study, finding that there is little potential for harm, either to drillling crews or the public from radiation exposure from fracking operations. But Schwartz said the Pennsylvania study was based on sampling for radon around nearly three dozen wells. He contended that the Hopkins study provides a better overview of potential exposure because it reviewed hundreds of thousands of readings across the state.

The study comes as lawmakers in Annapolis appear set to impose a 2 1/2-year moratorium on fracking in western Maryland, which sits atop a deposit of potentially gas-rich Marcellus shale.

Amid debate about the safety of fracking and its impact on people’s health and western Maryland’s tourism industry, the Senate voted 45 to 2 earlier this week to continue a 3 1/2-year de facto moratorium as the state studied how to mitigate the risks. The legislation requires state regulations be adopted by Oct. 1, 2016, but no permit could be issued until a year later.

Parts of Maryland also have high radon levels. Thirty percent of homes in Garrett County have registered radon levels at or above the threshold at which the Environmental Protection Agency recommends residents take steps to prevent long-term exposure to the gas. The average reading in the county was 5.6 picocuries, above the 4 picocurie threshold, according to EPA data.

But Schwartz said home radon readings may be a misleading indicator of the risks from fracking, as the drilling and extraction process may bring much more radioactive gas to the surface than is currently detected.

Fracking linked to rise in household levels of killer radon gas by ClickGreen, April 9, 2015

Cancer-causing gas in homes linked to shale gas drilling.

Researchers have linked rising levels of the killer radioactive gas radon in homes to the start of the United States’ fracking boom.

Radon is estimated to be the cause of tens of thousands of deaths each year. The US Surgeon General has warned that radon is currently the second leading cause of lung cancer and only smoking causes more deaths.

Now scientists at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health say that levels of radon in Pennsylvania homes – where 42 percent of readings exceed what the US Government considers safe – have been on the rise since 2004, around the time that the fracking industry began drilling natural gas wells in the state.

The researchers also found that buildings located in the counties where natural gas is most actively being extracted out of Marcellus shale have in the past decade seen significantly higher readings of radon compared with buildings in low-activity areas. There were no such county differences prior to 2004.

“One plausible explanation for elevated radon levels in people’s homes is the development of thousands of unconventional natural gas wells in Pennsylvania over the past 10 years,” says study leader Brian S. Schwartz, MD, a professor in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences at the Bloomberg School. “These findings worry us.”

The study, conducted with Pennsylvania’s Geisinger Health System, analyzed more than 860,000 indoor radon measurements included in a Pennsylvania Department of Environment Protection database from 1989 to 2013. Radon levels are often assessed when property is being bought or sold; much of the study data came from such measurements. The researchers evaluated associations of radon concentrations with geology, water source, season, weather, community type and other factors.

Between 2005 and 2013, 7,469 unconventional natural gas wells were drilled in Pennsylvania using hydraulic fracturing to liberate natural gas from shale. Up until recently, most natural gas wells were created by drilling vertically into porous zones of rock formations like sandstone to release the gas. …

The disruptive process that brings gas to the surface can also bring heavy metals and organic and radioactive materials such as radium-226, which decays into radon. Most indoor radon exposure has been linked to the diffusion of gas from soil. It is also found in well water, natural gas and ambient air.

Averaged over the whole study period, houses and other buildings using well water had a 21 percent higher concentration of radon than those using municipal water. Houses and buildings located in rural and suburban townships, where most of the gas wells are, had a 39 percent higher concentration of radon than those in cities.

Since radon is naturally occurring, in areas without adequate ventilation — like many basements — radon can accumulate to levels that substantially increase the risk of lung cancer.

The study’s first author is Joan A. Casey, a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health & Society Scholar at the University of California-Berkeley and San Francisco, who earned her PhD at the Bloomberg School in 2014.

She says it is unclear whether the excess radon in people’s homes is coming from radium getting into well water through the fracking process, being released into the air near the gas wells or whether natural gas from shale contains more radon than conventional gas and it enters homes through cooking stoves and furnaces.

Another possibility, she says, is that in the past decade buildings have been more tightly sealed, potentially trapping radon that gets inside and leading to increased indoor radon levels. In the past, most radon has entered homes through foundation cracks and other openings into buildings.

“By drilling 7,000 holes in the ground, the fracking industry may have changed the geology and created new pathways for radon to rise to the surface,” Casey says. “Now there are a lot of potential ways that fracking may be distributing and spreading radon.”

Natural gas typically travels via pipeline at 10 miles per hour, meaning radon can go statewide in one day. Radon has a half-life of about four days, meaning it has lost 95 percent of its radioactivity after 20 days.

The state of Pennsylvania recently took a comprehensive set of measurements near 34 gas wells, including air samples for radon near four wells, which did not show high levels of the radioactive gas. But the researchers say their study, which looks at levels in hundreds of thousands of homes and other buildings, is a better way to assess the potential cumulative impacts of all the wells.

“I don’t think we can ignore these findings,” Schwartz says. “Our study can be improved by including information that was not available for our analysis, such as whether natural gas is used for heating and cooking, whether there is any radon remediation in the building, and general condition of the building foundation. “But these next studies should be done because the number of drilled wells is continuing to increase and the possible problem identified by our study is not going away.”

Radon may be linked to fracking, researchers suspect by Laura Arenschield, April 9, 2015, The Columbus Dispatch

Radon levels in houses near fracking sites in Pennsylvania are higher than in those in areas where there is no oil and gas drilling, according to a new study by Johns Hopkins University researchers.

The researchers cautioned that their findings don’t definitively tie hydraulic fracturing to higher levels of radon. But they say they found a “statistically significant association” between a building’s proximity to a fracked well and to the amount of radon detected.

“The higher the gas production … the higher the basement radon levels,” said Brian Schwartz, one of the study’s authors and a professor of environmental-health sciences at Johns Hopkins.

Radon, an odorless, invisible gas, is the second-leading cause of lung cancer in the United States after smoking, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA estimates that about 21,000 people die each year from lung cancer caused by radon. 

The Hopkins researchers focused on Pennsylvania because the state’s Department of Environmental Protection has decades of radon data and fracking has become ubiquitous in parts of the state. Oil and gas companies drilled and fracked more than 7,000 wells in Pennsylvania from 2005 to 2013. … The researchers also focused on Pennsylvania, Schwartz said, because it has a history of radon issues.

So does Ohio, where more than half of its 88 counties — including those in central Ohio — have average radon levels that are higher than the highest allowable level recommended by the U.S. EPA.

Radon levels also are high in eastern Ohio, where the state’s fracking activity has been concentrated.

Ashok Kumar, chairman of the University of Toledo’s civil-engineering department and the lead scientist for the Ohio Radon Information System, said that it makes sense that radon would migrate into homes near fracking sites.

“When you are fracturing, this means there will be more cracks, so more surface area, more open area,” Kumar said. “So the radon can flow out from those areas.

“The process of decay of uranium will be the same — it doesn’t matter whether it is fracking or any other activity — but now there is more room for that radon to escape.”

A spokesman for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, which regulates the oil and gas industry, said officials there hadn’t seen the report and couldn’t comment on it.

Nathan Johnson, an attorney for the Ohio Environmental Council, an advocacy group, said the Johns Hopkins findings are alarming.

“It looks like fracking has unearthed an unbargained for and serious cancer risk in peoples’ homes,” Johnson said. “Some things are meant to remain buried.”

The study, Schwartz said, should at least persuade people to have their houses tested for radon.

“Anybody who lives in radon areas should know what their household radon levels are,” he said. “ If they’re elevated, they need to know what to do to lower them.”

[Refer also to:

Radon gas leaks in coalbed methane fields in Australia spark call for probe

Santos CBM in NSW Australia contaminates aquifer with uranium at 20 times the safe drinking water levels; Regulator does not test for thorium, radon and radium!

2012 Health Canada CrossCanada Survey Radon in Homes

Click on cover to access 2012 Final Report by Health Canada

Is Health Canada monitoring after frac (and refrac and refrac) radon levels in homes, drinking water and gas coming into Canadian homes?

Silent killer: Health Canada urges testing homes for cancer-causing radon

Cochrane Alberta home tests high for radon [Surrounded by fracing, including beneath]

University of Calgary researchers testing their own homes in search of radon, Results will be used to spur larger look at cancer-causing gas

Radon threats are grounds for precaution

2013 Radon and fracking Larysa Dyrszka MD

2013 Radon and fracking High Risk areas in USA Larysa Dyrszka MD

Slides above by Larysa Dyrszka MD, September 2013

Pennsylvania Supreme Court Says It’s Unconstitutional For Gas Companies To Frack Wherever They Want; Act 13, Gas Industry Takeover Law thrown out by State’s Highest Court

“By any responsible account,” Chief Justice Castille wrote, “the exploitation of the Marcellus Shale Formation will produce a detrimental effect on the environment, on the people, their children, and the future generations, and potentially on the public purse, perhaps rivaling the environmental effects of coal extraction.” 

Public Health Experts Call on Governor to Study Fracking’s Impact on Cancer-Causing Radon Levels Before Making a Decision On Whether to Allow Drilling

New York State to ban fracking because of red flags to public health. Health Commissioner Howard Zucker: “Would I let my child play in a school field nearby? After looking at the plethora of reports, my answer would be no.”

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