New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
New Haven plans to give away free radon test kits
NEW HAVEN — The New Haven Health Department will give away free radon test kits at the city’s libraries during Radon Awareness Week, officials said Monday.
The department, through its Healthy Homes program, also provides up to $10,000 per unit for income-qualified residents to test for and mitigate radon and other home hazards, officials said in a release and at a subsequent news conference on Truman Street in the Hill section. The Healthy Homes program is funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
More information about the Healthy Homes program and the radon test giveaway schedule can be found at https:// nhvhealth.org or by calling 203946-6999.
Mayor Justin Elicker, Health Director Maritza Bond and others discussed the efforts at the news conference Monday to encourage New Haven residents to test their homes for radon, a cancer-causing radioactive gas, and take advantage of free radon testing and mitigation funding.
Testing for radon, an odorless, colorless gas that can cause lung cancer “is a very simple thing to do,” said Margaret Conable of Elm City Home Inspections, who spoke at the press conference along with Elicker, Bond, U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development Connecticut Field Office Director Suzanne Piacentini and others.
“The testing is very simple and then the remediation is very simple,” Conable said.
Truman Street homeowner Monique Ricks was pleased to learn her house was safe.
“I’m happy to know that I did
not have radon in my home ... but I’m glad they’re doing this,” Ricks said. “To hear the numbers, 26 percent (testing positive for radon) in Connecticut ... I think that’s too high for something that can be prevented.”
National Radon Awareness
Week runs from Monday, Jan. 22, though Friday, Jan. 26.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention describes radon as “an odorless, invisible, radioactive gas naturally released from rocks, soil, and water” that “can get into homes
and buildings through small cracks or holes and build up in the air.”
“Over time, breathing in high levels of radon can cause lung cancer,” the CDC says.
Radon “is the number one cause of lung cancer among
nonsmokers and responsible for approximately 21,000 lung cancer deaths each year,” according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. It estimates that nearly one in 15 homes in the United States have high radon levels.