Bloomberg shows high radon levels

After the University took steps to better ventilate sites in which high radon concentrations were found, subsequent testing in these areas yielded radon levels consistent with federal guidelines, according to a University statement.

Radon gas is produced by decaying uranium in the soil, University health physicist Sue Dupre explained. While uranium is a solid, radon is a gas that seeps into the air through the ground. The radioactive gas is known to increase the risk of cancer, in particular lung cancer, Dupre said.

The basement of the east wing of Bloomberg Hall had the highest measured radon concentrations on campus. One basement room had a radon concentration of 205 picoCuries per liter, over 50 times the EPA limit of four picoCuries per liter, according to the statement.

Testing by the Facilities Department also revealed elevated levels of radon in the basement of Forbes College, in rooms in the lowest levels of Henry and Blair halls and in a bathroom at 2 Dickinson St.

Students exposed to the radon did not seem to be worried about the small chance of adverse health effects.

Anna Toledano ’11, who is a DJ for WPRB, said she spends “about four hours per week” in the station’s studio in the east wing of the Bloomberg basement, an area in which high radon concentrations were found.

“They closed the station for a few days before spring break because they were making sure it was not toxic,” she said.

Toledano did not think she had spent a long enough time in the basement to be worried about getting lung cancer. “I’ve spent so little time in the studio that I don’t think it’s a problem, and now it’s going to be ventilated, so in the future they’ll keep an eye on it.”

Jon Bradshaw ’10 lives on the ground floor of the east wing of Bloomberg and said that the Facilities Department put metal canisters in his room over spring break to measure the radon levels there.

“Until I get lung cancer, I’m not going to be worried,” he said. “But if I do, and they link it back to my sophomore year of college, I am sure the University will hear from me.”

Though the levels found in some areas of campus were well above federal guidelines, exposure to these levels for short periods of time is unlikely to significantly increase students’ chances of developing cancer, Dupre said.

Get the best of the ‘Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

“The EPA guideline of four picocuries per liter assumes you are spending a lifetime of 73 years at that level and you’re only leaving that area for 7.2 hours per day. It turns out that with radon and lung cancer, brief exposures to elevated levels are not a risk,” she explained.

Dupre said that the risk of dying from radon-induced lung cancer after spending a lifetime in an environment with a radon concentration of four picocuries per liter is 73 out of 10,000.

University spokeswoman Cass Cliatt ’96 said that the University worked to reduce radon levels in areas of high concentration as soon as these areas were identified. Radon levels in Forbes, Henry, Blair and 2 Dickinson St. were reduced over the summer.

The high radon concentration in Bloomberg was not discovered until over spring break, Cliatt said, and the problem was fixed before students returned to campus.

The University did not find high concentrations of radon in any residential rooms in Bloomberg or Forbes, Cliatt said, though concentrations in rooms above the basement level were not measured until after the basement was properly ventilated.

The highest radon level found in a residential area was 9.3 picocuries per liter in the lowest level of Henry, according to the statement. The basement of Blair also contains dormitory rooms.

Buildings in Princeton are at high risk for elevated radon levels because the soil here has unusually high uranium concentrations, Dupre explained. Princeton sits on a uranium-rich geological structure called the Reading Prong, which runs under New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Hot air rising from the basement of a building to its upper levels creates a vacuum effect that sucks the radon gas out of the ground, she explained.

Dupre calculated that a student’s risk of dying as a result of living in a room with a radon concentration of 9.3 picocuries per liter for a year is 1.7 out of 10,000.

Dupre performed a similar calculation for the basement of Bloomberg, where radon concentrations reached 205 picocuries per liter in one room. Since these were not residential rooms, Dupre assumed that students spent shorter periods of time there.

The risk of dying from radon-induced lung cancer is .65 out of 10,000 for students using these rooms for two hours a week for a year, she said.

The University conducted radon testing in all residential buildings during the 1990s, Cliatt said. The new round of testing was prompted by measurements conducted in an engineering class taught by physics professor Frank Calaprice. Last spring, Calaprice’s students found higher radon levels in the basements of Forbes College and Edwards Hall than in other areas they tested.

The Facilities Department is planning to test all non-residential and University-owned housing buildings for radon beginning this April. Cliatt said that the University now plans to test the entire campus for elevated radon levels every 10 years.