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Radon Gas -- The Cost Of Saving 20,000 Lives
By Crouton Verne, Thu Dec 8th
20,000 people die each year in the United States from lungcancer caused by exposure to -- a preventable healthhazard. How much would it cost the U.S. government to save those lives?Let's estimate. The population of the United States is about 300,000,000.
Based on the most recent U.S. census, the average family size isslightly more than 3 people. Discounting apartment buildings, condominiums, townhouses, andother similar forms of housing (in which "per person" costs of testing and repairs are lower than insingle houses), let's come to the assumption that every 3-person family in the United States lives in a single-familyhome. That's 100,000,000 homes. Since a short-term test kit has an average cost of $20,testing every home in the United States would cost $2,000,000,000. Of the tested homes, roughly 7% would have a dangerousconcentration
of radon. This means that of the 100,000,000 households in the U.S. about7,000,000 would require some sort of repairs to lower the concentration to a safe level. Radon repairs run a gamut from $500 to $2500. But let's assume ahigh standard cost of $2000, to be safe. The cost of repairing each of these homes would add up to$14,000,000,000. The combined cost of testing and repairing every home in theUnited States would therefore be $16,000,000,000. Now, let's put this number in perspective. $1,000,000,000 is the cost of one B-2 stealth bomber. $16,400,000,000 is the NASA budget for next year. $196,996,000,000 is the current cost of the Iraq war. So, how much does it cost to save 20,000 lives? 16 stealth bombers, a year's work from NASA, or 8% of the Iraqwar effort. About the author:Crouton Verne runs Kills, a blog about gas, its linkto lung cancer, your risk, and what you can do about it. Radon Kills resides at: http://radonkills.blogspot.com/
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