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* Note: This article originally appeared in the Salt Lake Tribune on January 10, 2007.
Boy Scouts Andrew Corser, right, and Jordan Taylor pass out fliers on
radon to LaRae Bowker, left, and Lara Schmidt in Cottonwood Heights.
(Paul Fraughton/The Salt Lake Tribune )
By Judy Fahys
The Salt Lake Tribune
Article Last Updated: 01/10/2007 01:32:22 PM MST
Troop 115 jumped at the chance to tackle an invisible killer.
Naturally, the Cottonwood Heights Boy Scouts launched their campaign with horror stories around a campfire.
There's one about the mystery crime scene investigators come upon after a video game player dies in a puff of smoke. And another about the hospital patient who loses an arm - literally - when a doctor in search of a diagnosis tries to take his pulse.
But the really frightening truth, Troop 115 tells us, is that radon is an invisible, odorless gas that kills people quietly after building up in a house for years. It causes about 22,000 lung cancer deaths a year nationwide, killing about 60 Utahns a year.
“We need to get these things known, so we can get the information out and so people can have a better life," said Matt Easton, 11, a Bella Vista Elementary School sixth-grader who worked on the project.
The boys' video and computer presentation goes public this week, during National Radon Action Month.
Troop 115 has set a public meeting today at 7 p.m. at the Cottonwood Heights First Ward cultural hall, 7075 S. 2245 East, Cottonwood Heights. People who attend will get to see their video and take home free radon test kits.
John Hultquist, radon coordinator of the state's Division of Radiation Control, will be on hand to field audience questions, too. He called the boys' approach "clever" and praised their willingness to take on such a complex environmental project with less-than-obvious benefits.
"You are not going to get immediate results or satisfaction from it. . . . You don't get to see the reward," he said of radon education.
Meanwhile, about 900 Utah homes are tested for radon each year, and about 150 of those learn that radon levels are high enough to call for mitigation, Hultquist said.
The Scouts said they discovered lots of surprising things about radon as they did the research for their project. One is that about 1 of every 4 homes tested in their 84121 ZIP code has radon levels the EPA considers too high.
Andrew Corser, a 12-year-old from Butler Middle School, noted that radon is second only to smoking as the leading cause of death from lung cancer.
Tim Robertson, 13, didn't realize that something so inconspicuous could have such a dangerous impact, especially on people who smoke cigarettes, which increase the risk of getting lung cancer from radon to 300 times that of a nonsmoker.
“It can affect anybody,” he said.
“The more radon gas you have in the area, the higher the chance of getting lung cancer.”
But Easton noted that people can do something to avoid the danger posed by radon. They can get their homes tested to learn if radon is seeping through the cracks in their foundation and building in their homes.
Troop 115 plans to summit their project for consideration for the national William T. Hornaday Award, scouting's “Olympic medal bestowed by the Earth.” Only 1,000 of the awards for conservation and environment have been granted in 70 years, according the Boy Scouts Web page.
fahys@sltrib.com
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