Federal Radon Action Plan

August, 22, 2012: Gina McCarthy, Assistant Administrator, Office of Air and Radiation, US Environmental Protection Agency; Dr. Howard Koh, Assistant Secretary for Health, Department of Health and Human Services; and Maurice Jones, Deputy Secretary, Department of Housing and Urban Development addressed the 2012 CDC National Cancer Conference by marking the year anniversary of the Federal Radon Action Plan, an inter-agency initiative designed to increase federal government efforts to reduce radon exposure in the homes and schools the federal government owns, operates, or finances. Radon is the leading cause of lung cancer for nonsmokers in the U.S.

The three leaders praised the efforts of the agencies participating in the Action Plan, highlighted progress made during the first year, and called for more action. Since the release of the Action Plan in June 2011 almost half of the 33 commitments have been completed. To learn more about the commitments and status, view the Action Plan Scorecard.

The Action Plan Scorecard

Senior leaders from EPA and HUD announced the release of the Federal Radon Action Plan to reduce radon exposure in the housing the federal government owns or influences at the National Healthy Homes Conference in Denver, Colo., June 2011. (A separate non-government group is also working to increase action on radon, see www.radonleaders.org/calltoaction ). For over a year, the federal partners have been working to implement the Plan. While work continues on the Plan the federal government wants to keep the public informed about progress. Thus, the federal partners have released a Federal Radon Action Plan Scorecard, a tool designed to display the status of federal activity.

This scorecard shows the status on each commitment identified in the Action Plan and provides a target completion date. You can view progress in three different ways:

• track status by agency,
• track status by progress (green, yellow, or red circle), and
• track status by the Action Plan Framework which groups actions by their primary intent to either demonstrate the importance of radon risk reduction, address finance and incentive issues to drive testing and mitigation or build demand for services from the professional nationwide industry.

	No progress to date
	On track to complete the commitment by the target completion date
	Complete

Beside each commitment is a green, yellow, or red circle.

These circles are status indicators and offer a simple and quick overview of progress as of August 22, 2012. The goal was to have all commitments move to yellow or green by the one year anniversary in June 2012. Where implementation has taken longer to implement, participating agencies will provide an explanation. We will frequently update the scorecard as commitments change in status.

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The Action Plan

The Action Plan aims to increase radon risk reduction in homes, schools and daycare facilities, as well as radon-resistant new construction. It contains both an array of current federal government actions to reduce radon risks and a series of new commitments for future action. To address the current reality of barriers to radon risk reduction the actions implemented through this effort will:

• Demonstrate the importance, feasibility, and value of radon testing and mitigation.
• Provide economic incentives to encourage those who have sufficient resources to test and mitigate, and provide direct support to reduce the risk for those who lack sufficient resources.
• Build demand for services from the professional, nationwide radon services industry.

(PDF, 10 pp., 239 K)

With this Plan as a catalyst, industry and nonprofit ally organizations will be ready to build on and increase the impact of the ideas for action contained in the federal strategy. These complimentary efforts will create the demand needed for thousands of new jobs in the housing sector for radon testing, mitigation, and new construction.

Read the full text, "Protecting People and Families from Radon: A Federal Action Plan for Saving Lives (PDF)," (10 pp., 239 K, about PDF) to learn more about the federal government's strategic approach to reduce radon risk in the millions of homes, schools and daycare facilities that it influences.

Read the June 20, 2011 EPA Press Release.

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