Nick Kusler has been in a number of basements in the past nine years around Muskogee that could hide a potentially lethal gas.

“I would say that 95 to 98 percent of the time there are cracks in the basement,” Kusler said. “Definitely, the basement is often a neglected part of the house.”

If left neglected, the potential that radon, an invisible and odorless gas, leaking into those basements could result in death.

The second leading cause of lung cancer in the U.S. is radon. The Environmental Protection Agency says that this naturally-occurring gas becomes trapped in buildings and results in more than 20,000 lung cancer deaths per year. One in 15 homes nationwide has a level of radon where action needs to be taken to make air in the home safe, the EPA states.

Mike Broderick, environmental program manager with the Radiation Section of the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality, said January is a high-risk month.

“Normally, radon comes out of the earth and is dispersed harmlessly into the atmosphere,” he said. “In winter, the house is all closed up, and as the heated air rises, it creates a suction that can draw radon through the basement.”

Broderick said there is an even greater risk if the basement is the old, unfinished rock type, or if there are any cracks in the foundation.

A heat and air service technician for The Hogle Company, Kusler enters an average of five basements a day, five days a week and has seen a wide variety in the ages of the homes.

“If you get up there around 12th Street, some of those are 100 years old,” he said. “I’ve been in those and on up to brand new homes.”

Despite the danger, Broderick said public awareness is not high.

“Lung cancer is the risk of radon exposure,” he said. “Radon exposure is potentially fatal. It’s a good idea to test your house. Even if you are in an area where the underlying geology makes your home low-risk, the variability of that geology makes it worthwhile to test.”

Information

For more information about radon, radon testing and mitigation, and radon-resistant new construction in Oklahoma, call DEQ at (405) 702-5100 or see the DEQ radon Web pages at www.deq.state.ok.us/radon.