Boulder County Public Health (BCPH) strongly encourages residents to test their homes for radon, an invisible, odorless gas that can cause lung cancer. Radon is a naturally occurring gas that decays into radioactive particles and increases the risk of lung cancer for those living with radon trapped inside their houses. Radon exposure causes as many as 500 deaths due to lung cancer each year in Colorado.

In Boulder County, around 50% of houses have unhealthy radon levels, which is astonishing when compared to the rest of the country, which averages only 6% of houses with unhealthy radon levels. The average radon level in a Colorado house is above the EPA guideline of 4.0 pCi/L (before mitigation). Breathing radon at that level is like smoking eight cigarettes per day.

Take action this January—National Radon Action Month—by testing your home for radon.

Low-cost test kits can be found at local hardware and home improvement stores. In Boulder County, low-cost test kits are available at Re-Source Central (resourcecentral.org). Alternatively, Kansas State University offers low-cost test kits online at sosradon.org.

Winter is a great time to test for radon when more time is spent indoors, and windows are closed. Testing is simple and inexpensive, and, if elevated levels are discovered, they’re easier to fix than you’d think.

For more information about radon and testing, visit www.boco.org/radon or contact Boulder County Public Health at HealthRadon@bouldercounty.org.