As a Utah real estate broker and attorney, I respectfully ask that you please support the Utah Department of Environmental Quality's building block request for $50,000 of ongoing funding for the Utah Indoor Radon Program.

Radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer in the United States and based on my decades of selling residential real estate in Utah, I can guarantee you that the average Utahn is clueless as to the the extent of the radon problem, the inexpensive testing available ($10 or less, including lab fees) and the simple, effective and inexpensive mitigation available ($1,200-1,500), if testing reveals elevated levels.  Because of this lack of knowledge, any program that educates our citizens about this deadly carcinogen deserves support and funding.

My personal passion to educate anyone who will listen to me regarding the dangers of radon comes from almost losing my wonderful Aunt to radon induced lung cancer discovered in 2007.  Her home at the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon tested at 26 picocuries, or 6.5 TIMES the 4.0 picocurie US recommended remediation level.  Now, after having her right lung removed, months of almost deadly radiation and chemotherapy, over one million dollars in medical bills and her 5 year cancer survivor party, she will be in surgery this Friday morning to have a 3 inch cancerous mass removed from the front of her brain and then next month will have the gamma knife destroy a smaller mass at the back of her brain.  I cannot stress strongly enough that the dangers of this virtually unknown problem are out of all proportion to the costs of a little education so people can understand and deal with this absolutely preventable problem.

Thank you for your kind consideration.

Sincerely,

Brett D Poulsen