The odorless, colorless gas radon is the second leading cause of deadly lung cancer in the U.S. – and too often, it’s found in our homes.

January is National Radon Action Month.

The North Carolina Radon program has distributed approximately 7,000 free radon testing kits across the state, and Orange County only received about 30 of them.

“They are available on a first-come-first-serve basis, said Stacy Shelp, public information officer for the Orange County Health Department. “Anyone’s eligible. There’s no income requirement, etc. People just have to stop by the Environmental Health Dept. in Hillsborough, starting on the 12th of January, or give us a call.”

They’re available through January 30th, or while supplies last.

Thirty test kits aren’t a lot, obviously. But Shelp said there’s no need to panic.

“The good news is that Orange County is not particularly prone to radon,” said Shelp. “You typically find radon in places that, geographically, have high presence of granite-type bedrock. So, the North Carolina mountains, particularly, would be more concerned.

Still, she added, radon is not found more often in any particular kind of structure, so we should all take precautions against it.

Shelp said that once the supply of free kits runs out, the NC Radon Program will return to providing kits for $5.35, at a savings of nearly $10.

You can also buy a kit for around $15 at a big-box home improvement store, or just about any small hardware store.

The Orange County Environmental Health Department is located at 131 West Margaret Lane, Suite 100.

You can call the EHD at 919-245-2360.

For more information on radon and how you can lower your family’s risk of lung cancer, you can visit www.ncradon.org.

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