One of my closest friends, who I will refer to as “Jack,” lived in a quaint community in Ewing, New Jersey.  Last year, he decided to put his house up for sale. An inspection was performed on his home, and Jack was told that his basement contained dangerously high levels of radon.  But, according to the inspector, so long as he didn’t spend long periods of time in the basement, Jack did not have to be too concerned. Unfortunately, Jack was a mechanical engineer, and as such, spent countless hours in the basement tinkering with gadgets and tools.  He was advised to visit a doctor immediately. A ventilation tube with a built-in detector was installed before the next residents moved in, but it was too late for Jack.

My intention in sharing this story is to disseminate information regarding the dangers of radon. Radon is a radioactive gas given off as uranium decomposes.  It is odorless, tasteless, and colorless.  Because it is formed in the ground and is heavier than the normal air we breathe, radon tends to collect in the basements of homes.  High levels of radon can form anywhere that uranium is present in the soil, but this natural phenomenon seems to occur more frequently in southeastern Pennsylvania and western New Jersey.

At a Fourth of July party last summer, Jack took me and a small group of our closest friends outside. Standing in a silent circle around him holding our beers, Jack told us the news: selling his house, the home inspector’s findings, and his recent doctor’s appointment.  None of us understood where his story was leading until Jack tearfully revealed that he was diagnosed with cancer in his lungs, his liver, and part of his small intestine. Without surgery, Jack would be dead before his 29^th birthday.

Fearing that a donor would not be found in time, Jack decided to live out a lifelong dream.  Just a few short weeks after our conversation, he was on a flight to New Zealand.  From there, he visited China, Japan, and Hawaii. If Jack was going to die, he wanted to see as much of the world as possible. But soon after returning from his travels, Jack received a shocking phone call; a suitable donor was located near San Francisco. Jack would be moved to the top of the list if he was willing to relocate to the Bay Area.

In early September, he flew to California in preparation for the risky surgery. There was one catch however— the donor was still alive.  In a morbid battle against time, Jack had to hope that he could outlast both his cancer, and the life of his donor.  In October, the donor passed away, and Jack underwent extensive surgery.  Both lungs and his liver were transplanted, and the cancerous section of his small intestine was removed.  It was the riskiest procedure ever performed at that hospital.

In the months following the surgery, Jack made a slow yet remarkable recovery.  Fighting a 50 percent chance of living beyond five years, his family and friends simply enjoy each new day that we get to spend with him. But not everyone is as fortunate.

For two weeks straight in the mid-1980s, Stanley Watras set off alarms as he came in to work at the Limerick Nuclear Power Plant. These alarms are triggered by Geiger counters designed to detect radiation on workers as they leave work each day. This baffled the plant’s safety staff.  How could a worker be setting off the alarms indicating high levels of radioactive contamination prior to his shift?

An inspection team decided to investigate Watras’ house, and quickly discovered that his basement was filled with the deadly radon gas. Trace amounts in the home are equivalent to receiving 200 chest x-rays in a year; Watras was exposed to levels over 1,000 times greater than this. Experts estimate that he was exposed to radon levels equal to smoking 130 packs of cigarettes per day, or nearly two cigarettes every minute for 24 hours. While the details of this story are quite fascinating, the overall implications are nothing short of terrifying.

The adverse effects of radon are preventable.  For as little as 20 dollars, a radon detection kit can be purchased from a local hardware store such as Lowe’s or Home Depot.  If dangerous amounts are detected, simply opening windows or sealing small cracks in the foundation can significantly reduce the level of radon in the home. Awareness and knowledge about the dangers of radon are keys to avoiding this silent killer. For more information, please go to the Environmental Protection Agency’s website located at http://www.epa.gov/radon/pubs/citguide.html

Daniel Savage is a freshman at Drexel University majoring in English with a minor in Legal Studies.  Immediately after graduating from high school, he served in the Air Force for eight years, which enabled him to live in Germany for three years and travel all over the world.