Radon Awareness Project (RAP) - Detect to Protect

Vital Stats

Christina and Eric B

Golden, CO

  • people helped4000000
  • People Doing It 2

The Problem

Christina (13) and her brother Eric (11) have started a Radon Awareness Program. They found out this invisible, tasteless and odorless gas causes lung cancer. Next to smoking, radon is the second most common cause of lung cancer. Did you know that over 20,000 people die of radon-related lung cancer every year? Even one death is too many. We are trying to educate citizens in our state of Colorado on the dangers of radon. Colorado is a high potential zone which means there is radon > 4 picocuries/L. This is level is associated with increased risk of lung cancer. We won first in our state for the National Radon Poster contest. We found it did not reach many folks unless you specifically went to that web site. We knew then that Radon education was very important and launched an awareness campaign. Our motto is Detect to Protect as simple testing can tell you if the level is an "action" level.

Plan of Action

We set up a grass roots approach to reach every citizen in Colorado, hoping this model would reach all of the U. S. We presented at several City Councils and to our County Health Department to find out if they provide information to their citizens. We distributed information pamphlets and started a web site www.radondetecttoprotect.info. 4 newspapers wrote about our rally for awareness and Channel 9 News interviewed us. We traveled far and wide and presented to the American Lung Association (ALA). We attended the ALA Fight for Air Stair Climb with 2300 participants and educated them on radon. We have spoke to the U. S. Dept of Housing and Urban Development about how important it is to test homes. We spoke on the steps of Colorado's State Capitol to publicize our campaign. In a few weeks, Comcast has invited us for an appearance on their news that will be a Colorado local broadcast on CNN's channel. We must have reached over 4 million people by now.
Go
Environment
Physical and Mental Health
Healthy Living
Pollution

Related Stuff