DÁIL COMMITTEE:AS THE Government this morning launches a strategy to deal with the health risks linked to the radioactive gas radon, a Dáil committee has heard that the dangers caused by the gas are a public health issue.
Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government Phil Hogan is scheduled to open the annual “national radon forum” in Dublin this morning.
Organised by the Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland, the meeting will hear details of a radon strategy to reduce the death toll associated with the naturally occurring radioactive gas.
The chairman designate of the institute, Prof William Reville of University College Cork, yesterday attended a session of the Committee on Environment, Transport, Culture and the Gaeltacht.
Radon caused the lung cancer deaths of up to 200 people here a year, he told committee members. “That is up there with road deaths and suicides.”
He would make the radon risk a key priority as chairman, given Ireland had one of the highest indoor radon levels in Europe, Prof Reville added. A public campaign was needed given only 2.5 per cent of Irish homes had been tested for radon levels. The gas could build up in homes, increasing the exposures to those living there, he said.
Another priority issue was the more than 3,500 radiation sources being stored across the State. These were sources used by hospitals and research universities which were no longer in use.
Many had been purchased before the introduction of a mandatory “take-back” policy for companies supplying these sources. They also lacked a proper storage facility to hold them safely.
Prof Reville, who is radiation protection officer at UCC and an Irish Times columnist, supported the building of a storage facility for these sources until they could be disposed of properly.
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