Word: radon
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Federal officials warn homeowners that the radon threat is worse than was previously thought, and urge immediate testing...
There was plenty of other fuel for worry: reports of inexplicable fish kills, warnings against eating shellfish, tales of lakes and forests dying from acid rain. Who could forget that up to 12% of all U.S. houses suffer unsafe radon exposure? That by sending up chlorofluorocarbons used in coolants, man is still destroying the ozone layer that protects against ultraviolet rays...
...invisible, odorless, radioactive gas produced by the decay of uranium in rock and soil, radon can seep into homes through cracks in foundations and drains. Some houses in the Northeast have been found with dangerously high radon levels. Last week the Environmental Protection Agency announced that the health threat posed by radon may be greater than previously thought...
Surveying 11,600 houses in ten states from Wyoming to Alabama, EPA investigators found that 21% had radon levels exceeding EPA health standards. The American Medical Association promptly declared radon a "risk of substantial magnitude" but described as "somewhat uncertain" federal estimates that attribute 10% of lung-cancer deaths...
Some weeks ago Dr. Otto Hahn of Berlin's Kaiser Wilhelm Institute donned his work clothes, walked into his laboratory to perform a physical experiment. With a stream of neutrons (obtainable by subjecting a pinch of beryllium to the emanations of the radioactive gas radon) he bombarded a bit of uranium. While the routine little experiment proceeded all was peace and quiet in the laboratory. There was no crash of thunder, no flash of cataclysmic lightning...