In January 2023, then 65-year-old Clare Lewis was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer. She’s a former physical therapist, a life-long athlete and has never been a smoker. A chest X-ray for a broken rib in 2019 showed crystal clear lungs.
So why did she get so sick, and so fast?
The evidence is pretty clear as far as Lewis is concerned. The culprit: radon—an invisible, odorless gas that comes out of the ground and enter homes through cracks and gaps in the foundation, walls or water supply. It’s the second leading cause of lung cancer behind smoking in the United States.
“Given the fact that I don’t smoke, it’s the second leading cause, and we have high levels of radon in here, it seems to me pretty certain that that’s what caused [my cancer], because it’s kind of like, well, what else?” Lewis said.
Lewis had no symptoms for a long time, but after the cancer spread to her lymph nodes and formed a lump in her armpit, a biopsy confirmed the shocking diagnosis – lung cancer. It wasn’t until her brothers suggested radon as a possible cause that she began to do research and connect the dots.
As the pandemic hit in the spring of 2020, Lewis, like many others, began a housebound lifestyle at her home in The Dalles. She spent the next couple of years diligently working out daily in her basement to stay in shape. Little did she know, the radon level down there was off the charts.
When Lewis learned of her cancer, her initial prognosis was dire, and it left her numb.
“I mean, at first, you go through this period of, you know, shock and denial,” Lewis said. “I didn’t want to talk to anybody about anything.”
But that quickly changed, and Lewis decided she wanted to tell everyone, especially neighbors, and warn them about possible radon risk in their homes. Some took her warnings seriously and tested their homes. A couple homes did, in fact, have high radon levels, and the owners have taken steps to lower those levels.
Lewis lives in The Dalles, bordering Mosier, along the Columbia River Gorge—an area ripe for dangerous radon levels because of the landscape’s high concentration of granite—a common source of radon.
Testing your home
It’s relatively cheap and easy to test a home’s radon level. Test kits cost anywhere from about $10 to $30. A person places the test in the lowest living area of their home, waits three days, then mails the test back to the lab and waits for the results.
In Oregon, people living in certain ZIP codes qualify for free radon test kits through OHA’s Radon Awareness Program, while supplies last. For more information, visit this webpage, call 971-673-0442, or email radon.program@oha.oregon.gov.
If your ZIP code doesn’t qualify for a free test, consider these options for testing your home for radon:
- Nonprofit Home Inspections offers free radon tests to people with low-moderate income levels anywhere in Oregon.
- American Lung Association sells radon test kits ranging from $18 to $30. The price of kits includes shipping and lab analysis.
- Most local hardware stores sell radon test kits ranging from $15 to $25.
- Radon test kits can also be ordered from online retailers such as Amazon at competitive prices.
- You can hire a local qualified radon testing professional to do the testing for you. Find a list of Certified Radon Measurement companies in Oregon here.
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, if your home’s radon level is 4 pCi/L (picocuries per liter of air) or above, it’s time to take action to lower it. Truth is, there is no safe level of radon exposure, but the lower the better. Homeowners with elevated radon levels can contact a Certified Radon Mitigation company to reduce radon levels. Testing showed the radon in Lewis’ home was 7 pCi/L.
Lowering radon levels involves installing a radon mitigation system, which typically costs around $2,000. In a nutshell, a pipe is inserted through the basement floor (or under a vapor barrier in a crawl space) and draws the radon gas up through the pipe using a fan. The gas is then safely vented and released outside up above the roofline.
Lewis did have her home’s radon level mitigated professionally, and she continues to monitor it regularly. She wishes she had known about radon risk before she and her husband bought their home in 2015. In fact, home shoppers should feel empowered to request radon testing as part the standard home inspection and, if necessary, negotiate the cost of mitigation into the sale price.
As for Lewis’ cancer, it’s gone. Her fate was not as dire as doctors initially told her. After six months of taking medication only (with harsh side effects), she was declared cancer-free, with no evidence of disease. But she is not cured, and not out of the woods. For the rest of her life, Lewis must take medication daily, and she must have scans and lab work performed every four months.
The whole nightmare has inspired Lewis to take on advocacy work, hoping to protect others from the potentially deadly effects of radon exposure. She wants to share her experience and enlightenment with anyone who will listen. She’s reached out to media and given interviews, and she hiked 300 miles across France to raise money for cancer research. She even called the Oregon chapter of the American Lung Association to see if she could help spread the word.
“I just said, you know, if there’s any way I can advocate and help out, volunteer, you know, whatever, that would be great,” Lewis said. “I don’t want anyone to have to go through that suffering needlessly.”