Team 4: Many Schools Don't Test For Radon In Class

PITTSBURGH -- What if your child's school was infected with a dangerous gas, but you were never told about it?

Team 4 has learned testing at a school in Mt. Lebanon found high levels of radon, but parents say they didn't find out until Channel 4 Action News investigative reporter Paul Van Osdol told them.

Video - Watch Paul's Report

Team 4 has learned three out of four school districts in our area have not done any radon testing. That's because there is no state or federal requirement to do it. Some schools that did test found levels in the danger zone.

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NOTE - If you want to see whether your school district has done radon testing, use the links in the "Related" box on the right side of this page.

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Howe Elementary in Mt. Lebanon is a Pennsylvania school of distinction. But five years ago, the school distinguished itself in another way: high radon levels.

Radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer, killing thousands of people every year. Radon levels are particularly high in western Pennsylvania -- that's why most people test for radon when they buy a home.

Five years ago, Howe Elementary School had radon levels three times the EPA limits. But parents there said the school district never told them about it. And Team 4 has learned the school district never bothered to recheck the radon levels until Van Osdol started asking questions.

The EPA said any levels over 4 picocuries per liter are potentially dangerous. But at Howe, levels were as high as 15.6 picocuries per liter in the cafeteria.

"I was unaware of it," one mother told Van Osdol.

"I know, as a parent here, I had no idea that was happening," said another mother.

School officials declined to be interviewed on camera but a district spokeswoman said she is not sure what parents were told at the time of the testing, because the principal no longer works for the district.

After the testing was done, the school's radon consultant recommended "additional investigation" to install "an efficient radon mitigation system."

But the school district did not use the radon experts to do that. Eighteen months after the initial tests, the district had its own maintenance staff work on the heating system to improve air flow.

Yet the district never checked to see if the radon readings went down, until after Team 4 requested radon test results in September.

The new test results do show radon levels are below EPA limits.

It was concern about mold -- not radon -- that prompted Gateway School District to do widespread air quality testing six years ago, but the levels of radon at Gateway Middle School got the attention of school officials.

The test results revealed levels of cancer-causing radon gas that were shockingly high. In this classroom, the radon reading was five times the maximum amount considered safe by the EPA.

The EPA maximum is 4 picocuries per liter.

"Above that, it is believed you have an important risk of lung cancer," said Dr. Devra Davis, an epidemiology professor at the University of Pittsburgh.

But classrooms had levels of 16, 18, 21 -- even 32 -- and a reading of 18 in the gym.

"Gateway Middle School was a concern. We needed to get the school into the safety zone very quickly," spokeswoman Cara Zanella said.

So the district spent $92,000 installing a radon mitigation system. Pipes and fans are used to suck radon out of classrooms.

"Gateway looked at it and weighed the cost vs. the cost to our students, and that was an easy decision for us," Zanella said.

Aliquippa Junior/Senior High School also installed an expensive mitigation system after finding radon levels as high as 8 in the boys' locker room and 16 in the principal's office.

But the districts did not have to test for radon and they did not have to mitigate. There is no state or federal requirement for schools to do anything about radon, and most school districts do nothing.

Team 4 asked every school district in western Pennsylvania if they'd done any radon testing in the past 10 years.

• In Allegheny County, only 13 of 43 school districts had done any testing.
• In Beaver County, just one of the 14 districts tested.
• In Butler, one of seven districts.
• In Washington, only two of 15 districts had tested.
• And in Westmoreland, five out of 16 districts.

The districts that are not testing range from Bethel Park in the South Hills to Avonworth in the North Hills to Rochester in Beaver County.

In Rochester, where the average radon level in homes exceeds the EPA limit, parents were disturbed to learn none of their schools had been tested.

"My son is at risk. I have two daughters at risk. I would definitely like to know why not," parent Jeremy Thomas said.

"I thought they already did that, myself. I wasn't aware they didn't check for radon," parent Wayne Witt said.

"Oh, wow, I didn't know that. I would just assume. It's our kids going there, even the teachers, even the administrators are in there, so I would assume they'd have tested," grandmother Kathy Bourque said.

School officials in Rochester and other districts that had not done testing declined to be interviewed. Some of them said -- off camera -- they don't test because it's not required.

All that came as a surprise to radon inspector Tim Ellis.

"For me, it's hard to understand why one wouldn't at least test for the presence of radon," Ellis said.

Even those districts that did test have done -- in most cases -- only a handful of schools.

Pittsburgh tested just three of its roughly 70 schools. At one of them -- Concord Elementary -- the testing company said it could not obtain accurate results because windows and doors were left open.

Franklin Regional did not test the high school, the middle school or two elementary schools. It tested only one building -- an elementary school that happens to contain the district's administrative offices.

"The fact that you tested here in this building where your offices are, but not the buildings where the classrooms are -- is that a concern at all?" Van Osdol asked.

"No, because, once again, these offices are basement-level and the other buildings are not basement-level types of buildings," Superintendent Dr. Emery D'Arcangelo said.

"How confident are you that the classrooms are free of radon?" Van Osdol asked.

"You can't be confident of everything until you test," director of district services Dennis Majewski said.

Twenty years ago, radon testing was proposed in Pennsylvania but it never got through the Legislature.

Some states do mandate radon testing in schools. They include West Virginia, Virginia, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Florida and Colorado.

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