The National Environmental Health Association (NEHA) is sponsoring a 2½ day training opportunity in Washington, D.C. The training is designed to enhance your efforts to implement radon-resistant new construction (RRNC). You will work with U.S. EPA staff, NEHA field partners who have successfully implemented RRNC in their communities, local code officials and builders, other national affiliate partners, and nationally-recognized instructors. You will see specific examples of how to develop an effective, results oriented program. And, you will develop your own comprehensive strategy to guide you in your efforts in promoting RRNC as part of your radon risk reduction strategy. The training will include an extensive overview of RRNC techniques and presentations on radon health effects, including recent research.

Program Areas
The John Merck Fund makes grants in six program areas: Developmental Disabilities, Environment, Reproductive Health, Human Rights, Job Opportunities, and Civic Engagement/Defense of the Public Interest. Grants are generally limited to the United States. The Human Rights program provides grants to organizations in Latin America; and the Environment program, exceptionally, to organizations in Canada. Please see the Fund's individual Program Areas for more details.

Application Procedures

EPA Seeks Public Comments on "Healthy Indoor Environment Protocols for Home Energy Upgrades" [11/09/2010] EPA is developing voluntary Healthy Indoor Environment Protocols for Home Energy Upgrades, in conjunction with the Department of Energy (DOE) Workforce Guidelines for Home Energy Upgrades. The comment period runs through December 9, 2010. Read more at www.epa.gov/iaq/homes/retrofits.html

Also:
Vice President Biden's Middle Class Task Force Recovery Through Retrofit event today 11/9/10 celebrates the publication of IED's draft Healthy Indoor Environment Protocols for Home Energy Upgrades (http://www.epa.gov/iaq/homes/retrofits.html) as part of the Recovery Through Retrofit Initiative.

Several early press articles:

USA Today: http://content.usatoday.com/communities/greenhouse/post/2010/11/obama-home-energy-retrofits/1
McClatchy: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/11/09/v-print/103397/biden-to-roll-out-home-energy.html

BACKGROUND: In a recent population-based case-control study using 2,400 cases of childhood cancer, we found a statistically significant association between residential radon and acute lymphoblastic leukemia risk.

HYPOTHESIS: Traffic exhaust in the air enhances the risk association between radon and childhood leukemia.

METHODS: We included 985 cases of childhood leukemia and 1,969 control children. We used validated models to calculate residential radon and street NO(x) concentrations for each home. Conditional logistic regression analyses were used to analyze the effect of radon on childhood leukemia risk within different strata of air pollution and traffic density.

Very supportive of more action on radon! Very Important report!

The report is posted on the PCP site now. My email won't let me attach the report b/c the file is too large. Rather than compressing the file...please go to the PCP website and download the report.

http://deainfo.nci.nih.gov/advisory/pcp/pcp.htm

It's the first link under Reports: "Annual Report for 2008/2009"

As many of the list members may be aware, the Health Physics Society recently updated their radon position statement. Several members of the list assisted with the development of the new position statement including Jim Burkhart, University of Colorado; Kevin Stewart, American Lung Association; Dan Strom, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory; Phil Jenkins, Bowser-Morner; and Dan Steck, St. John’s University, Minnesota. I apologize if I missed anyone.

Old Radon Position Statement - http://www.hps.org/documents/indoorradon.pdf

New Radon Position Statement - http://hps.org/documents/radon_position_statement.pdf

Support document - http://hps.org/documents/radon_position_statement_background_document.pdf

The editor of the Health Physics Society Newsletter, Genevieve Roessler, has graciously allowed distribution of the most recent Health Physics Society Newsletter to the radon list (SEE ATTACHED). Thank you Gen!

CanSAR continues their great work getting the word out!

View excellent news coverage (video): http://www.wgal.com/video/22595955/index.html

This special edition may be of interest.

REVIEWS ON ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH

Special Double Issue: Volume 21: No. 4, 2009 - Volume 22: No. 1, 2010
ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS IN CANCER
Selected Papers from the President’s Cancer Panel 2008-2009 Meeting Series

Attached (below) please find information on how to order this special edition. You must be logged in to RadonLeaders.org to access and download the attachment.

It is a great pleasure for us to invite you to attend the 6th Conference on Protection against Radon at Home and at Work which will be held at the Faculty of Nuclear Sciences and Physical Engineering, Czech Technical University in Prague from September 13th till 17th, 2010.
The main topic of the Conference is “Radon as an information carrier”.

This letter is the first announcement (please, see the attachment) and call for papers.
For detailed and up-to-date information, please, follow the Conference web site:
www.radon2010.cz

The preceding 5th Conference on Protection against Radon at Home and at Work held in the year 2007 had 80 registered participants from twenty-five countries all over the world. The participants represented a wide range of fields of work related to radon issues: scientists who have dedicated most of their professional life to radon measurement and/or theory, geologists, civil engineers, and epidemiologists.

Health Physics Society recommends considering action for indoor radon below current guidelines
Published: Monday, November 30, 2009 - 02:15 in Health & Medicine

Radon is a colorless and odorless radioactive gas that is produced by the radioactive decay of radium. Radium is a product of uranium decay and is found in trace amounts naturally in nearly all rocks, soils, and groundwater as well as building materials, plants, animals, and the human body. Radon concentration is expressed as the amount of radiation that would be emitted by radon and its decay products in a liter of air; thus the units are picocuries per liter (pCi/L). The American Cancer Society, on its Web site, states that the estimates for lung cancer deaths caused by radon each year is between 15,400 and 21,800.