Woman who will die because of radon wants people to know it’s common

Two years ago, Kerri Robbins, then 65, was on her treadmill, just like a million times before. And suddenly she was coughing up water, though she hadn’t recently taken a sip. She went into the bathroom to wash her hands, looked in the mirror and couldn’t remember why she was there. She last remembered stepping onto the treadmill. It was, she said, “the weirdest sensation.”
It was also the beginning of a completely unexpected journey that would be filled with sorrow, appreciation, new knowledge and what might be called a dying wish.
Her family, of course, called the paramedics, fearful of a stroke. By the time they got there, she was more herself, but they told her to go to the emergency room because her blood pressure was a bit high and she’d been confused. There, an MRI and other tests showed she had a brain tumor. Doctors would soon discover that it wasn’t brain cancer, but lung cancer that had migrated to her brain. The tumor in her lung was stage 4 and will, without question, kill her, though no one knows exactly when.
A lifetime nonsmoker, she couldn’t understand it. But when she called one of the doctors at Huntsman Cancer Institute, Dr. Wallace Akerley asked her a question that would give her new purpose: Have you had your house checked for radon?
She’d never even heard of it. But her home in Lehi, Utah, scored high and she’d found her future killer. Now she wants to spend the rest of her life teaching others about it.
Radon gas is odorless, colorless and tasteless. It’s not humanmade; it’s naturally occurring. It seeps up from the ground and dissipates, so folks are generally protected outdoors, but with well-built homes that aren’t leaky, radon gets trapped in houses, said Akerley. Because it’s inhaled, the lungs take the brunt.
Lung cancer is the No. 1 cancer death killer, with about 85% of cases due to smoking. More women die from lung cancer each year than breast and colorectal cancer combined. Breathing in radon gas, asbestos, a family history of lung cancer and radiation can raise the risk of developing lung cancer, which occurs when DNA in lung cells multiply abnormally, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Some estimates put lifetime risk of lung cancer for women at about 1 in 17. Recently, the rates for women have been rising.
Akerley said an estimated 20,000 lung cancer deaths in the U.S. a year are the result of radon. “That’s a huge number and it’s preventable,” he said.
“The most important thing is that radon is radiation and most people should have a healthy fear of radiation,” Akerley told the Deseret News. He said as many as one-third of Utah homes may have elevated levels that the Environmental Protection Agency has said should be mitigated, but most people have never even tested for it. And testing is how it’s detected. You can order a free test at Utahradon.org. Many stores also sell tests, which are not complicated to use.
“At the end of 48 hours, you either have radon or you don’t,” Akerley said. “If you do have a low level, you can feel absolutely fantastic and know that you’ve protected your family. If you have a high level, you now know you’ve got a problem and it’s something that can be fixed and it’s sometimes a very easy fix.”
When Akerley tested his own home, he had a radon level that was unacceptable. “In my case, it was something as simple as filling in the holes the contractor left open around the pipes that came in. In other cases, they will put a pipe through your foundation and divert the radon so it goes around your house instead of collecting inside, where you live,” he said.
“We build a home to protect our family from the elements and to have a safe place. And it’s just such a crime that a safe place can be shared with radiation,” Akerley said. “We all want to fix that.”
The U.S. has taken heavy metals out of water, lead from paints and banned asbestos, he added. But “the East and West coasts do a better job of radon awareness.”
Newer homes are built so efficiently and so airtight that they seal in radon, if you happen to have it in your ground. And it’s important to note that it could be in your house, but not your neighbor’s. It’s also possible that Robbins had unsafe radon levels in other homes where she and her family previously lived. She said she’d love to go back and test for radon in their old Idaho and Washington homes.
Testing is not a one-time thing; it should be done every few years. Radon exposure can change. An earthquake — even a little one — or construction that shakes the ground and moves things as happens when a big house is going up next door can change your exposure and risk by altering where radon seeps up.
“If you have a good test today, it doesn’t mean you’re going to have a good test for the rest of the life of the house,” said Akerley, who recommends people consider testing every few years and any time there’s an event that might rattle the ground.
The repair requires a professional who knows exactly how to mitigate the radon and its source.
The amount of radon in the Robbins home affected her lungs as if she’s smoked three packs a day, Robbins was told.
She and her husband called radon experts to mitigate the radon and the amount immediately went down, she said. They tested about three weeks after and it had dropped from 31.3 to near zero, which to her was “wonderful.” There’s a monitor now and she looks at it every day when she goes downstairs. “It give me such peace of mind it’s amazing,” she said.
She started radiation treatment for her cancer and almost immediately her lungs started doing better, though it doesn’t change the fact she has metastatic lung cancer. Her brain tumor growth slowed some, though she has had a couple of seizures over the summer. She takes a chemotherapy pill daily.
“It will eventually still kill me,” Robbins said. “But for right now, I’m doing OK.”
She takes anti-seizure medicine and steroids have helped with some neuropathy that developed in one of her arms.
Robbins is avid about warning people that radon is dangerous and sneaky and may be in their homes. She’s someone who in a grocery line might randomly ask you if you’ve had your home tested. She also dismisses the notion that folks who don’t have a basement don’t need to worry. She has no basement and the effects of radon will still prove to be deadly for her.
She worries about her husband Ron, but not as much as if he’d worked remotely. He has gone to work every day for years. She worked, too, but from home, so she was with the radon most of the day every day. He had a chest X-ray after she was diagnosed, but it didn’t raise any alarms.
“I feel like I know where I’m going, so it’s OK with me to go. I feel bad for the people I love and will leave behind,” she said, referring to her faith in an afterlife. She’s a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
But before she goes, she plans to tell everyone she can that radon is dangerous. And that testing for it saves lives.