Wednesday, January 13, 2016

New test results show 3 rooms at Westland MS exceed EPA limit for radon


Montgomery County Public Schools has completed new radon tests at Westland Middle School in Bethesda, and results show at least 3 rooms in the building have radon levels above the 4.0 picocuries per liter of air (pCi/L) limit recommended by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. School systems are expected to take immediate action to reduce radon levels when they exceed that number.

The rooms at Westland found to be over the radon limit are:

Room 137 (6.2 pCi/L)

Room 136-C (5.0)

Room 100-D (4.4;4.7)

It appears MCPS held on to the results before releasing them, as documents suggest the lab analysis of the test kits was performed between December 22 and December 24. The tests were conducted by KCI Technologies and M.A. Cecil and Associates.

The presence of unsafe levels of radon in 26 MCPS schools, and the failure of the system to take action or report previous test results to parents, was first uncovered by the Parents' Coalition of Montgomery County, MD back in November.

Radon is described by the EPA as "a human carcinogen and a serious environmental health problem," and a "radioactive gas."

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Your definition of "uncovered" appears quite different than mine. It's just regular radon testing and mitigation. It doesn't become sexier just because you try to imply a cover-up.

Anonymous said...

You don't understand. The Parents Coalition of Montgomery County uncovered that MCPS did nothing about high levels of radon for several years. MCPS conducted tests 3 or 5 years ago, discovered that in some schools the levels of radon were quite high but put those results in a drawer and did nothing until PC requested to see those results about a month ago.

Anonymous said...

Dyer is an idiot if he thinks that radon test results are available immediately after the end of the testing period.

But we knew that already.

@ 11:31 AM - I demand a thorough investigation into the Parent Coaliton's non-feasance on this issue.

Robert Dyer said...

1:45: The lab analysis was done prior to Christmas, according to the test firm's own report. Today is...January 13. Think about it.

Anonymous said...

@1:45 STFU you are so 2015.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

Looks like the troll is back from winter break...oh well.