Keep your family safe from radon, the second leading cause of lung cancer overall and the first leading cause of lung cancer in nonsmokers. January is National Radon Action Month. Elkhorn Logan Valley Public Health Department (ELVPHD) will have short term radon test kits, while supplies last. The kits are available for $15.00 plus sales tax.
Radon is a natural gas in soil and rock that you cannot see or smell. It can enter your home through holes and cracks in the basement floor, walls, or from well water. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recommends that homes with radon levels of 4 picocuries per liter (pCi/L) of air or more be mitigated. In Nebraska there are dangerously high levels of Radon and nearly one in two homes has levels well above the safe zone. Over the past several years, the average radon level in tested homes in the health department’s service area or Burt, Cuming, Stanton and Madison Counties has ranged between 7.5 to 10.4 pCi/L, twice the level considered safe.
Testing is easy, inexpensive and best to complete in the winter months when windows are closed. The test kit should be set up in the middle of a room in the lowest level of your home that you often spend time in. It should be within the normal breathing zone (2 to 6 feet from the floor). When the three-day testing period is over, simply seal the kit, complete the data sheet and ship to the lab for testing.
Buy your radon test kit online at: https://elvphd.org/Radon-Kits or pick up a kit at one of ELVPHDs office locations Monday – Friday from 8:00am to 4:30pm:
- ELVPHD Norfolk Office: 314 N. 5th St., Suite 100, Norfolk
- ELVPHD Wisner Office: 2104 21st Circle, Wisner
- ELVPHD Tekamah Office: 1121 S. 13th St., Tekamah
For more information please call 402-529-2233 or email info@elvphd.org. For more information about radon, visit ELVPHD’s website at www.elvphd.org.
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