Wake County Seeks Volunteers for Home Radon Study

Wake County residents have an opportunity to find out for free whether their homes and drinking wells are harboring radon, a naturally occurring gas that has been linked to lung cancer and other health problems.

Wake County Environmental Services is leading a countywide study to evaluate radon levels in indoor air and groundwater in homes throughout the county. It is working in partnership with N.C. State University's Department of Marine, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences and the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources Radiation Protection Section.

Interested residents can register online here or by calling the Radon Hotline at 919-664-5560 during July. The first 500 eligible households to volunteer will receive free testing in August.

A colorless, odorless gas produced when uranium decays, radon is known to be present in elevated levels in areas of Wake County. Radon exposure is second only to cigarette smoking in causing lung cancer deaths in the United States and is linked to as many as 22,000 deaths a year.

For more information about radon, contact Talytha Moore at the Radiation Protection Section at 919-571-4141.