Safe Tech for Schools Maryland: Double Jeopardy!!! MCPS Classroom Radon Levels plus Wireless Technology = A Time Bomb

Many schools in Montgomery County have radon levels that exceed the EPA guidance levels and they have not performed the necessary remediation. Unremediated radon levels plus wireless radio-frequency levels in the classroom potentially creates an exponentially higher higher cancer risk for students.

What is the radon level at my child's school?

Read Summaries of MCPS Radon Test Reports: (note these summaries do not list borderline readings.)
Elementary Schools, Middle Schools, High Schools, Other Facilities

Want to find your specific school and read the radon report?
Look up your school at these links: Elementary Schools, Middle Schools, High Schools, Other Facilities

Classrooms with Levels under the EPA Action Limit need to be remediated.
The President's Cancer Panel Report "Reducing Environmental Cancer Risk: What We Can Do Now," notes that "the cancer risk attributable to residential radon exposure has been clearly demonstrated and must be better addressed."

The panel encourages the EPA to consider lowering its current "action level" of 4 pCi/L for radon exposure, given that new radon risk data have emerged since the existing action level was set. In 2009, the World Health Organization set a new recommended radon reference level of 2.7 pCi/L for residential structures.

"Radon-induced lung cancer is responsible for an estimated average of 21,000 deaths annually in the United States," Field said. "The President's Cancer Panel has thoughtfully reviewed the scientific evidence in regard to radon and many other environmental toxicants and has issued a call to action that should not be ignored." Read the press release on this here.

The EPA states that no level of radon is safe. "However, EPA believes that any radon exposure carries some risk—no level of radon is safe. Even radon levels below 4 pCi/L pose some risk, and you can reduce your risk of lung cancer by lowering your radon level." "Radon levels less than 4 pCi/L still pose a risk, and in many cases may be reduced". Read it on page 2 here atEPA: A_Citizens_Guide to_Radon.

MCPS Is NOT following EPA Protocol

According the the EPA

1. When doing the short term test the following conditions need to be taken: "If you are doing a short-term test lasting just 2 or 3 days, be sure to close your windows and outside doors at least 12 hours before beginning the test, too." Page 5 on EPA: A citizens Guide to Radon . However MCPS did not follow this protocol with their testing. For example:

At Westland Middle School the retesting was done December 15 through 18- A TUESDAY through FRIDAY! There is no way windows and door could have been closed, therefore outside air came in potentially interfereing with the test.
At Fields Road Elementary the testing was done January 11 through January the 14th- a Monday through Thursday.

2. The EPA states clearly that you should have at least 12 hours of 'closed house conditions" (brief entries and exits) PRIOR to deploying the test devices. Read it here. The State of New Jersey states, "For tests that last less than four days, closed house conditions must be started at least 12 hours before you begin the test."

In fact, several experts are clear that the short term test is not as accurate as a long term test. According to State of Virginia, "We recommend long-term testing whenever possible." Read it here.

MCPS is not following it's own protocol.

According to MCPS in their Radon Update "In the event that radon is detected above 4.0 pCi/L, longer-term (30 day-period) testing is recommended to confirm levels. If long-term testing confirms levels above 4.0 pCi/L, steps will be taken to remediate the affected area(s)." MCPS radon tests showed several schools with levels above that limit but steps were never taken to follow up.

MCPS States in MCPS' Do Slightly Elevated Levels of Radon Present a Safety Hazard? that "EPA does not recommend that schools use a single short-term test as the basis for determining whether or not action needs to be taken to reduce radon levels. "

What Does the EPA states specifically about Schools and Radon?

"If a room is found to have a level of 4 pCi/L or greater, this measurement result should be confirmed with another test. If the second test is also at or above 4 pCi/L, schools should take action to reduce the radon level to below 4 pCi/L. "

"For most school children and staff, the second largest contributor to their radon exposure is likely to be their school. As a result, EPA recommends that school buildings as well as homes be tested for radon."

Read it all here on the document Radon Measurements in Schools which is linked to on the MCPS Radon page.

Replicated Research Shows Wireless Increases Cancer Risk and Can Promote Tumor Formation

Wireless plus a Carcinogen = BAD NEWS

Just like mixing drugs produces a synergistic effect, wireless plus a carcinogen can increase the health impact exponentially. Many people state, "the research is not replicated". That is FALSE. Please see the results of the research study looking at radio frequency exposure plus a known carcinogen.

Lerchl's Mice Study

Mice were exposed in the womb to a known cancer agent, ENU, and then exposed to radio-frequency. The results were that the doubly exposed mice had significantly higher rates of tumors of the liver and the lung, as well as of lymphoma in comparison to those with exposure to the cancer agent alone. This study was designed to repeat, with a larger number of animals, an experiment published in 2010 by Thomas Tillmann of the Fraunhofer Institute of Toxicology and Experimental Medicine in Hannover. When Tillmann first presented his results a couple of years earlier, he called them “remarkable” (see “3G Can Promote Tumors”).Now it's replicated!

“Numbers of tumors of the lungs and livers in exposed animals were significantly higher than in sham-exposed controls. In addition, lymphomas were also found to be significantly elevated by exposure. Many of the tumor-promoting effects in our study were seen at low to moderate exposure levels, well below exposure limits."

Lerchl et al., Tumor promotion by exposure to radiofrequency electromagnetic fields below exposure limits for humans, Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, Available online 6 March 2015.

"Four of six co-carcinogenesis studies showed increased cancer incidence after exposure to RF-EMF in combination with a known carcinogen;"

-From the World Health Organizations International Agency for the Research on Cancers conclusion on Radio-frequency Radiation as a Class 2 B carcinogen. At the time of this WHO/IARC statement, Lerchl's 2015 study had not even come out.

Wireless Can Cause Leakage of The Blood Brain Barrier
Watch this video of Dr. Leif Salford, Neurosurgeon at Lund University Hospital, and Chairman of the Department of Neurosurgery. Since 1988 he has led a team of researchers that have exposed thousands of laboratory rats to microwave radiation from various sources. His results show that not only does radio-frequency damage the blood-brain barrier, but it does so at even when the exposure level is reduced a thousandfold.

What other research details these effect?
Many studies look at co carcinogenic exposures, blood brain barrier permeability and how wirless has effects when combined with another agent. One landmark study showed a significant dose-response relationship between the number and duration of voice calls made on cell phones and ADHD risk among children exposed to lead in their environment.

“Given the potential impact of EMF, and the real-world importance of EMF as a co-promoter, there appears to be a major disconnect between the magnitude of the problem and the research available to understand and ameliorate the problem"
-Dr. Ronald N. Kostoff Georgia Institute of Technology, School of Public Policy in his published research on combining wireless with a carcinogen.

A Sampling of the Research