The Conference of Radiation Control Program Directors, Inc., in collaboration with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, has developed a new guide for health care providers titled Reducing the Risk From Radon: Information and Interventions. This guide was designed to furnish health care providers with the information they need to reduce their patients' exposures to radon. Radon is estimated to cause about 21,100 lung cancer deaths per year and is the leading environmental cause of cancer mortality in the United States. This guide has the latest information on:
• Radon statistics and public health impact.
• The science behind the risk estimates.
• Radon testing and reduction.
• Sample guidance for use in health care settings.
• The role of health care providers in reducing the burden of radon
Congratulations on CRCPD's release of this long-awaited successor to the quarter-century-old Physician's Guide to Radon. Thanks to the U.S. EPA (and to the American taxpayer, of course) for supporting development of the guide, with its broader and appropriate emphasis on the role of all health care providers in health communication and cancer prevention. And especially, thanks to Dr. Bill Field, not only for his perseverance in drafting the guide, and for his collegial approach in working with many diverse collaborators, but also for his championing of its adoption by and dissemination through as many professional health avenues as possible.
I encourage everyone, particularly when questions arise about the state of the medical science regarding radon, and about what health care providers should know and do, to be sure to distribute this guide far and wide. This is an achievement that should not be underestimated.
Thank you so very much, Bill, and CRCPD, and any others involved. I read it last night and am so very impressed. It is easy to read and contains such important information. We at Citizens for Radioactive Radon Reduction will do all we possibly can to get it out to the medical community! Thank you for your great work! Hopefully it will help to save lives.