DAVENPORT, Iowa — Radon one of the top causes of cancer in Iowa and the state leads the nation in results, according to the EPA. It's a chemical gas commonly found in homes, but experts say that can be avoided.
"I quickly learned about Radon," said Maria Steele, lung cancer survivor and retired nurse practitioner. "Being in healthcare, I'm pretty shocked to be diagnosed late stage, having never smoked."
Steele was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer that had metastasized her brain at 62 years old in early 2020.
"I had some heaviness in my chest," Steele said. "I had a nighttime cough. My stamina, ir didn't feel like it typically was."
She did all the tests she could think of before the results came in.
"That CT showed the possibility of a primary lung cancer," Steele said.
Doctors told Steele the average person with this cancer would only live a year.
"We tested our home with an at-home kit; we got it at the hardware store," Steele said. "And our home had double the radon levels."
"The only option to figure out if you have radon or not is to take a test," MidAmerica Basement Systems marketing coordinator Abigail Vaessen said.
Vaessen said radon is in one of every seven homes, and that lung cancer kills more people in the U.S. than breast, colon and prostate cancer.
"You can't smell it, you can't taste it, you can't see it," Vaessen said. "So it's absolutely undetectable until the effects are starting to occur."
MidAmerica offers test kits and services that combat radon.
"We see so many leads come in where people's homes are testing ten times over the safe limit," Vaessen said. "I don't think enough people take it seriously."
Experts said testing is recommended during the winter months when more people are indoors with closed windows, leading to radon being trapped in homes.
"A lot of times it will enter your home through cracks in your basement floor, holes in the walls," Vaessen said.
"Don't think it's just going to go away," Steele said.
The EPA recommends testing your home every two years or during major renovations.
MidAmerica Basement Systems is giving away free radon test kits throughout the month of January. Click here to learn more.
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