Immediate Radon Tests at U.S. Schools Urged : Lawmaker Says Pupils Are Exposed to Carcinogen While Federal Researchers Spend Time on Maps

Impatient with the government’s response to the radon health threat, the chairman of a House subcommittee charged Tuesday that federal researchers are getting bogged down in mapping potential hot spots of the radioactive gas and called for immediate tests in every school in the nation.

School children may be suffering dangerous exposure to cancer-causing radon while the exhaustive federal mapping of radon-producing uranium deposits continues, said Rep. Peter H. Kostmayer (D-Pa.), chairman of the House Interior and Insular Affairs subcommittee on oversight and investigations.

“If the government doesn’t take the problem seriously, why should the America people?” Kostmayer said. “. . . For what the Pentagon spends in 90 minutes . . . we could test all the schools in the country and let parents know what their children are exposed to.”

In April, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator William K. Reilly called for communities across the country to test homes and schools for radon, a naturally occurring gas that can build up to harmful levels in buildings. In a survey of 130 schools in 16 states, less than 5% of the country’s classrooms, hazardous levels of radon were found in more than half.

Children are thought to be especially vulnerable to radon. The effect of the gas at what the EPA considers the danger level would be similar to the effect on a child of smoking half a pack of cigarettes a day.

Survey Called Failure

Kostmayer called the EPA’s effort, which includes a second survey now under way, a “dismal failure.” An agency official said it will take at least a “couple of years” to test classrooms all across America. Most of the testing is being done by local agencies, some of it financed by federal grants.

“This program gets an F minus,” Kostmayer said.

An aide said that Kostmayer is considering legislation that would speed up testing.

“If it’s so inexpensive to test, shouldn’t we go ahead now?” David Weiss, staff director of the subcommittee, said.

A 1988 law directed the EPA to identify high-risk areas, but a program to do so with the help of the U.S. Geological Survey came under fire because it prepared thousands of radon maps that seem to have done little to prompt people with homes in areas identified as dangerous to examine health threats to their families.

Even with the maps, officials said, testing is still needed to determine specific risk. Committee members questioned whether--in light of the 20,000 or more cases of lung cancer a year thought to be caused by the gas--all schools and homes should not be tested.

Richard J. Guimond, director of radiation programs at the EPA, said he was surprised that people have not reacted more to the news of radon contamination.

“It’s easy to be fearful of a nuclear power plant; it’s not familiar to you, but your home is familiar,” he said. “It’s easy to become complacent with an odorless, colorless gas . . . .”

A real estate developer said that he has had one radon test request from a home buyer over the last four years. “People don’t seem to give a hoot,” Kostmayer said.