The Nation - News from April 8, 1988

Federal agencies involved in housing, hamstrung by a lack of congressional guidance, are doing little or nothing about the threat from cancer-causing radon, the General Accounting Office said. Although environmental officials say radon causes up to 20,000 cancer deaths a year, the housing agencies see little responsibility to respond, the GAO said in a report. The report scrutinized the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Veterans Administration, the Farmers Home Administration and the National Park Service. Radon is an odorless gas that is a natural byproduct of decaying, underground uranium, and can seep into buildings as it rises from the ground.