A hearing was held on a bill to require home sellers to disclose the presence of radon to potential buyers.
Radon is an odorless, colorless, radioactive gas that can seep up through the floors of homes and cause lung cancer. North Dakota has the highest levels of radon in the nation.
President of the ND Medical association, Doctor Stephanie Dahl, spoke before the House Business, Industry, and Labor committee. She says radon in her home led to a health scare that affected her lungs. She now advocates for radon testing and awareness.
"Radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer deaths in the U.S. and it kills more people than home fires. Think about that. Almost everyone has a smoke detector in their house, but how many people have radon detectors?"
Doctor Gary Schwartz is a professor and chair of the Department of Population Health at the UND School of Medicine. He says a safe level of radon is less than 4 picocuries.
"Picocuries, they don't mean anything to you unless you can turn them into something you can understand. If you just multiply picocuries by 2, that will give you the carcinogenic equivalent in cigarettes. 10% of homes in Grand Forks have levels of greater than 20 picocuries, that's 2 packs of cigarettes a day. I recently saw a report from a home in downtown that has 160 picocuries. Thats 320 cigarettes a day."
A number of medical professionals spoke in support of 2204. They say the bill doesn’t mandate testing for radon or prevent the sale of a building that has high radon levels. What it does, is require sellers to disclose any knowledge that they have of radon in the building.
The bill was given a unanimous do pass recommendation from the committee.