The proposal provides states with flexibility in how to limit the public's exposure to radon by allowing states to focus their efforts on the greatest public health risks from radon, those in indoor air, while also reducing the risks from radon in drinking water. Radon is a naturally occurring radioactive breakdown product of uranium that can dissolve and accumulate in ground water.
Radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer in the United States, after smoking.
Today's proposal would provide two options to states and water systems for reducing public health risks from radon in both drinking water and indoor air, a unique multimedia framework authorized and outlined in the l996 amendments to the Safe Drinking Water Act. EPA is encouraging states to adopt this more cost-effective approach, which would address radon in indoor air while requiring individual water systems to reduce the higher levels of radon in drinking water. Aeration of water to promote the release of radon is very effective and one of the more affordable water treatment technologies available. The 1996 Safe Drinking Water Act Amendments required EPA to establish several new health-based drinking water regulations. The first of these, announced by President Clinton in December 1998, was for cryptosporidium and other disease-causing microbes and for potentially harmful byproducts of the water treatment process.