DELAWARE — The city of Delaware is installing radon mitigation systems in neighboring buildings COhatch and City Hall in response to elevated levels of the gas.
“We were made aware in January of this year that a tenant at COhatch had privately tested elevated radon levels in their office. We immediately sought out a professional company to test for us,” Delaware Community Affairs Director Bob Hogensen said.
Delaware officials hired Protect Environmental out of Louisville, KY, to perform the tests at COhatch and city hall. The city owns both buildings.
Testing for the gas and installing the systems, which includes associated electrical work and roof patching, cost the city roughly $67,000 so far, Hogensen said.
Protect Environmental’s test results also found high levels of the odorless, colorless, radioactive gas.
The city does not plan to install similar systems in other building at this time, Hogensen said.
The Environmental Protection Agency recommends mitigation to ventilate toxic radon out of a home or building if tests show radon levels of 4.0 pCi/L (picocuries per liter) or higher.
Hogensen did not note the exact level found in the city buildings.
An email from COhatch Senior Community Manager Laurie Lendon to COhatch tenants about the construction work said the level was “well below federal safety thresholds.”
“For context, [the Occupational Safety and Health Administration] recommends evacuation at 100 pCi/L, and caution signage at 25 pCi/L, our level is significantly lower than both,” she said.
A radon mitigation system creates a vacuum under the building’s foundation, designed to remove radon from beneath the foundation and discharge it outside to dilute safely.
What is radon and why is it dangerous?
Radon is a radioactive gas that forms naturally when uranium, thorium, or radium, which are radioactive metals break down in rocks, soil and groundwater, according to the EPA.
Ohio has high radon levels because of its geology, specifically from uranium-rich Ohio Shale, which lies under a large portion of the state.
People become exposed to radon primarily from breathing it in air that comes through cracks and gaps in buildings and homes. Because radon comes naturally from the earth, exposure is constant, according to the EPA.
Radon is the number one cause of lung cancer among non-smokers, according to EPA estimates — and overall the second-leading cause of lung cancer.
It is responsible for about 21,000 lung cancer deaths every year, with about 2,900 of those deaths occurring among people who never smoked.
A DataOhio map of radon levels in Ohio shows radon-tested homes and properties in the 43015 zip code, which covers Delaware and surrounding addresses in neighboring townships.
The map shows 52.1% of all homes/buildings tested have radon levels higher than the EPA’s recommended limit, with a geometric mean of 4.3.
Data comes from 2010 and onward tests, as reported by Ohio licensed radon professionals, and the Ohio Department of Health (ODH) updates the data monthly.
ODH recommends that property owners test all occupied ground-contact structures for radon.
Free radon test kits are available for Ohio homeowners through the ODH.
