Date Published: 02/13/2020 [Source]
The Milton-Freewater Unified School District is accepting requests for quotes and will hold a pre-quote meeting in March for a radon mitigation project to begin this summer.
A press release from the Oregon Health Authority earlier this month revealed Milton-Freewater is among the top 10 highest-risk areas for dangerous levels of radon across Oregon.
The pre-quote meeting and project tour will be held at 1 p.m. on March 2, at 1020 South Main St., in Milton-Freewater. Proposals are due by 4 p.m. on March 20 to the same location.
Interested parties can pick up a proposal package at the same address or by emailing larry.glaze@imesd.k12.or.us.
Twenty sites in the city were recently tested to reveal an average level of 5.2 picocuries per liter, with six of the test locations recording radon levels above the EPA's high-risk level of 4 piC/L.
In late January, the Milton-Freewater School District wrapped up its own state-mandated radon tests thanks to funding from the Oregon Department of Education. The most recent testing showed radon levels as high as 9.6 piC/L at Central Middle School.
Radon is naturally occurring and not visible to the human eye, and can seep into someone's home through cracks in the floors and walls, gaps in suspended floors and around pipes, through wall cavities and construction joints, and through the water supply.
Radon is estimated to kill about 20,000 people due to lung cancer in the United States each year, making it the second leading cause of lung cancer-related deaths in the country behind cigarettes.
Two hundred seventy-six people in the state die of cancer related to radon exposure each year, according to the Oregon Health Authority.