Carcinogenic gas radon explained in 40 seconds
What you need to know about the carcinogenic gas radon.
Emma Kate Fittes, Indianapolis Star
EVANSVILLE – There is a plan and help in place to respond to radon levels in the basement of the Old Courthouse that were revealed Monday to be more than twice the level requiring action.
During a press conference led by Justin Elpers, president of the Vanderburgh County Commission, an expert brought in by the county to address the issue introduced a term – picocuries per liter (pCi/L) – that probably means nothing to most residents. But to people affected by radon gas exposure, it can mean everything.
The amount of radon in an area is measured in picocuries per liter. Four (4.0) picocuries per liter is the “action level” at which remedial action should be taken, said Ryan Goelzhauser, a certified radon control specialist with Popham Construction. When reporters asked what the recent tests in the basement of the Old Courthouse had shown, Goelzhauser gave a few numbers – 4.9, 5.3 and 6.6.
More: The catacombs of the old Evansville courthouse must be relocated due to radon in the county building
Courier & Press asked: “What is the highest value recorded?”
“8.2 and 8.8,” Goelzhauser replied. “They did a double test where they put two right next to each other to check that they were fairly close.”
According to the World Health Organization, radon is a naturally occurring radioactive gas with no smell, color or taste. Radon escapes from the soil into the air, where it decays and creates more radioactive particles. When people breathe in these particles, they settle on the cells that line the airways. This can damage DNA and potentially cause lung cancer.
According to the Indiana State Fact Sheet on radon, the gas is the leading cause of lung cancer in nonsmokers.
The Old Courthouse Catacombs, a Halloween haunted house in Evansville and longtime tenant of the basement, is unable to operate at its normal location this year and has removed its property from the area. According to the haunted house’s website, operations will be moved to a new location on Main Street. This will place the catacombs beneath the House of Lecter at 325 Main Street and transform them into the Catacombs of Doom.
The danger of radon is
At Monday’s press conference, county government and health officials sought to allay public concerns about radon exposure that may not be based on solid medical information.
The district’s investigations have shown that repeated and long-term exposure to radon must lead to serious health problems, they said. That is, over a period of about 20 years. They pointed out that radon often penetrates houses and other buildings.
“The stuff is in the soil,” said District Attorney David Jones. “It occurs naturally. It’s everywhere.”
Residents should have their homes tested, Jones said.
“This stuff has to come from the ground,” Jones said, repeating that point for emphasis. “So if you have a place with a dirt floor, like the basement of the old courthouse, it’s a dirt floor. This stuff comes up, and it appears that the higher layers are coming from there.”
Joe Gries, director of the Vanderburgh County Health Department, agreed with Attorney Jones’ assessment of the presence of radon in everyday life.
“It’s in the air — outside, inside, in homes, in buildings, in school buildings,” Gries said. “It’s coming from the soil. It’s coming from the water. We’re all exposed to the virus almost every day — but it’s the amount. Testing for that is the most important thing and I think surveillance is key.”
According to the Cleveland Clinic, a nonprofit, multispecialty academic medical center, “There are no immediate signs or symptoms when inhaling radon.”
“Repeated exposure over a long period of time – about 20 years – can lead to the development of cancer, especially if you are also a smoker,” the medical center explains.
Jones said people who have simply spent time in the basement probably have little cause for concern.
“We don’t know that there would have been any problems if we had stayed down there for 30 days, 60 days or even a year – of the people who worked there, no one is known to have stayed in the building for any length of time,” he said.
The plan for the future
More testing is planned, but officials said at Monday’s press conference that much beyond that is not yet known. Elpers said county officials are working with Goelzhauser, who he said will “work out a plan.”
“We haven’t narrowed it down yet, but he still needs to do some tests,” Elpers said.
Goelzhauser said work was underway.
“Right now, we’re monitoring the area to find out where we think the highest radon levels are,” said the radon protection specialist. “It wouldn’t make sense for us to install a remediation system in the Old Courthouse if the radon levels could be coming from an area outside the Old Courthouse – for example, from a tunnel that leads into another building.”
These insights will be enormously helpful in defining the scope of work required, said Goelzhauser.
“And then we will know what we need to do to solve the problem,” he said.
The radon could come from one of the tunnels leading into the building, Goelzhauser said.
“It’s a little too early to know exactly what we need to do to fix the problem,” he said.
Elpers said the cost of the basement radon remediation work would likely be funded through the 2025 budget. Goelzhauser said it was too early to say how much it would cost.
“We need to define the exact scope of our work to install the radon mitigation system before we can even give an estimate of the total cost,” he said. “We don’t yet know exactly where we will install the system or which route we will take.”
Installing a radon mitigation system in a home can be done in a day, Goelzhauser said, but it’s more difficult in a large, old public building like the Old Courthouse.
Gries, head of the health department, said the agency is available to concerned residents.
“If people want to test their homes, there are resources available,” he said. “The health department can help them.”
Anyone with concerns about their radon exposure should contact their doctor, Gries said.
“Get tested if you have lung problems,” said the health department head. “Yes – go to the doctor. And if you are a smoker, do everything you can to stop smoking. Come to the health department. We have programs. We will help you to stop smoking.”
Indiana has a radon hotline at (800) 272-9723. The national radon helpline number is 1 (800) 55-RADON (557-2366).
Radon has been on the county’s radar for some time
The issue came up on the first day of Vanderburgh County budget hearings this month, when Elpers presented county commissioners’ hopes for the 2025 budget. The Board of Commissioners, the three-member executive body of county government, owns the Old Courthouse. The 136-year-old building is managed by the Evansville-Vanderburgh County Building Authority.
County Council member Joe Kiefer said he had heard rumors about environmental problems associated with the Old Courthouse when the discussion turned to why the budget included $400,000 for maintenance of the building.
That’s the same amount the county budgeted for 2024, but council members knew what had been spent through May 31 – and only about $63,000 of it. In fact, about $300,000 more was spent in the last two weeks on a roofing and masonry project.
But the problem has been brewing for some time.
On Monday, Elpers marked October of last year, when Hafer Architects was in the midst of conducting a comprehensive building inspection — structural, plumbing, mechanical, electrical — for the Old Courthouse Foundation. The county’s construction manager asked Hafer’s lead architect to expand the inspection to “address county commissioners’ concerns about safety issues in the basement that involved both structural and environmental elements,” Elpers said.
In December, the board hired Evansville-based Environmental Management Consultants to conduct environmental testing in the basement. The company’s scope of work included a radon test.
Elpers said commissioners received preliminary test results in late January and early February of this year. The result: more radon tests in the basement.
“The affected tenants were informed of the continued testing,” Elpers said. “During the subsequent remediation phase, precautions were taken for the tenant in the basement. One tenant was relocated. After the testing, no tenants were in rooms with elevated radon levels, as almost all of the elevated areas were in the basement, where the Catacombs haunted house is located.”
Goelzhauser was hired in March to investigate the radon problem, at which point additional testing began and is still ongoing. Elpers said the board looked into ways to safely house the “Catacombs” ghost train attraction, but that proved unfeasible.
But that was then and now is today. “What about next Halloween?” asked one of the reporters at the press conference on Monday. Elpers could not be encouraging.
“I think it’s too early to say given the testing and remediation that’s going on,” he said. “But once the remediation starts there, it may not be possible for the tenant to return to that location.”
