Administrator Jackson
USEPA Headquarters
Ariel Rios Building
1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, N. W.
Mail Code: 1101A
Washington, DC 20460

Dear Administrator Jackson:

This message is about a radioactive soil gas, a major environmental toxicant that kills 25,000 Americans each year, and about the critical need for EPA’s leadership.

This message is about Gloria Linnertz of Illinois, Marlene MacEwan of Oregon, and hundreds of thousands of others who lost their spouses to radon-related lung cancer over the past 20 years. It is about the victims, some of whom may be “more fortunate” such as Barbara Sorgatz of Illinois. She developed Stage 1 lung cancer a few years ago and was fortunate to catch it early.

This message is also about Liz Hoffmann, who was 37 years old when diagnosed with Stage 3 lung cancer. Shortly thereafter, she found that her home tested high with radon, a radioactive gas and a Group 1 (demonstrated) human carcinogen. She was a non-smoker. Liz helped found Cancer Survivors Against Radon to create a voice for those who can no longer speak. In six years that have passed, Liz’s cancer has returned twice and now has progressed to Stage 4. Lung cancer victims have only a 15% five-year survival rate.

Gloria’s home tested 4 times higher than the EPA recommended radon action level, Marlene’s home tested 15 times higher, Barbara’s home tested 5 times higher, while Liz’s home was 2 times higher. None of these women had ever heard of radon gas before they encountered the diagnosis of lung cancer.

As one respected scientist stated before the President’s recent Cancer Panel,

“It is if we have toxic time bombs in millions of American homes.”

Radon is at seriously elevated levels in as many as 8 million American homes. The high concentration of indoor radon is the result of the way our homes are designed and built.

This message is also a request for your leadership.

The families and friends of radon victims are beginning a campaign to ask you and other national leaders to CHANGE RADON POLICY in America and thus save lives. As reported by a recent EPA’s Inspector General report, our current national program has failed to reducing the number of high risk homes in the U.S. and it is time to change that!

Please join with Cancer Survivors Against Radon to reduce the risk of this major environmental toxicant.

Since 1988, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has had a voluntary program that has been and remains severely underfunded and ineffective in reversing the growing number of lung cancer deaths related to radon exposure.

Please direct and support your deputy administrators to live up to the requirements of the 1988 Indoor Radon Abatement Act and work out a plan with Housing and Urban Development (the McKinney Amendments) that will require all federally backed mortgages to require a radon test or radon notification from the U.S. EPA (see the 2008 Illinois Radon Awareness Act as an example).

Please properly fund your technical resources or find another federal agency with the resources to do so for your agency.

Please do not abdicate such requirements to underfunded, understaffed state programs. You have the power to help win the war on lung cancer by saving lives. Make a difference in the lives of 25,000 citizens in our nation each year by strengthening federal radon policy and protecting our citizens. You can make a difference. You can SAVE lives.

Sincerely yours,

(your name here)