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Mourning the Passing of Gail Orcutt Blog HeaderWith extreme gratitude, the Iowa Cancer Consortium Board of Directors and staff remember our longtime friend and colleague, Gail Orcutt (May 7, 1953 – May 19, 2020). We also recognize her extraordinary contribution to radon-control advocacy and cancer control in Iowa. Read more.

Do you ask your patients if they’ve tested their homes for radon?

“Educating patients about the risk, and promoting the use of radon test kits, is something everyone can do and should do.”

– Charles Lynch, M.D., Ph.D.

“I remember him putting his face in his hands. He was sitting next to me out in his waiting room, and he just said, ‘Why don’t physicians know about this?'”

– Gail Orcutt, Pleasant Hill

“I want physicians personally to test their homes. We can really have an influence if we can get people to test. As physicians, we can model behavior that we’d like our patients to follow.”

-Timothy Vermillion, D.O.

Radon Guidance for Health Care Providers

The Conference of Radiation Control Program Directors (CRCPD), Inc., with assistance of the Environmental Protection Agency and Dr. Bill Field, Professor in the University of Iowa’s College of Public Health, has developed a new guide for health care providers titled Reducing the Risk From Radon: Information and Interventions. This guide was designed to furnish health care providers with the information they need to reduce their patients’ expsoures to radon. Radon is estimated to cause about 21,100 lung cancer death per year and is the leading environmental cause of cancer mortality in the United States.

This guide contains:

  • Radon statistics and public health impact.
  • The science behind the risk estimates.
  • Radon testing and reduction.
  • Sample guidance for use in health care settings.
  • The roles of health care providers in reducing the burden of radon-induced lung cancer.

Click on the image above for more information about the guidelines.

Click on the image above to view and print the complete guide.

The following videos explain how asking this important question could save lives:

This video was made possible by a grant to Dr. Bill Field at the University of Iowa from the Iowa Cancer Consortium, with supplemental support from the NIEHS – funded Environmental Health Sciences Research Center at the University of Iowa. Please feel free to contact us with any questions you may have about radon.

The following webinar, originally recorded on February 4, 2015, explores the issue of radon from a healthcare perspective and shares best practices for incorporating radon education into a healthcare setting.

Free educational fliers and brochures to prompt discussion between physicians and patients:

Packets of 50 printed brochures or fliers may be ordered for free by emailing [email protected]. All materials may also be downloaded and printed at will.

Iowa-Specific Clinic Fliers:
(Click on images below to view and print.)

Non-Iowa-Specific Clinic Fliers:
(Click on images below to view and print.)

Spanish Clinic Flier:
(Click on image below to view and print.)

Radon & You: What You Need to Know to Protect Your Family
(Brochure-English and Spanish. Click on images below to view and print.)

Purchase a low-cost radon test kit from the American Lung Association:

Click here to purchase a low-cost test kit.
Call 800-383-5992

Additional scientific information regarding the association between protracted radon decay product exposure and lung cancer are provided below.

International and National Guidance on Radon