Builders Act to Reduce Threat of Radon Gas

The National Assn. of Home Builders will soon begin to monitor construction of 100 radon-proof homes in New Jersey.

The project will demonstrate inexpensive ways of preventing radon from entering newly built homes and will lead to finding methods to eliminate radon from existing homes. The study will cost an estimated $280,000, and will be funded by federal, state and private sources.

Radon is a colorless, odorless radioactive gas that has been in the environment since prehistoric times, but which in recent years has been found in high concentrations in American homes in certain areas.

Information on correction of the problem is being traded with Sweden where radon pollution also exists. Representatives of the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Assn. of Home Builders Research Foundation conferred this year with members of the Swedish government and the Swedish real estate industry.