" Radon testing begins at Port Hope school "

["Franta, Jaroslav" <frantaj@AECL.CA>]

Radon testing begins at Port Hope school

Board wants to assure parents Dr. L.B. Powers is safe for students

Metroland - Durham Northumberland News, Wednesday, May 12, 2004

Jeanne Beneteau



PORT HOPE - To help ease public fears over alleged high radon gas levels,

the public school board will immediately begin radon testing at a local

public school, said the Kawartha Pine Ridge (KPR) District School Board's

superintendent of school operations.



At last Tuesday's Port Hope council meeting, KPR representatives, including

Superintendent Joe Hubbard and board chairman Angela Lloyd, assured the

community Dr. L.B. Powers Public School is a safe environment for both

students and staff.



Mr. Hubbard told council, although the safety of children has never been in

question, concerns expressed by Port Hope resident Pat McNamara over radon

gas levels at the school prompted the board to have experts from the

Low-Level Radioactive Waste Management Office (LLRWMO) and the

council-appointed peer review team to re-examine all available historic

testing data on the school.



"At all times, the levels of radon gas at the school have been below

federally-set criteria," said Mr. Hubbard. "Not because we feel there is any

danger, rather to demonstrate to the community that Dr. Powers is safe, the

board will have LLRWMO retest the school over a three-season period starting

this spring."



Late last week, Mr. McNamara, head of the Dr. Powers playground committee,

said elevated radon readings at the school's west fence line prompted him to

delve further into archives which record historic radon levels at the

80-year-old school. In a presentation to council Tuesday, he said readings

taken from drill holes in the proximity of the kindergarten classroom and

gym, added to the building in 1950, showed highly elevated levels of radon

gas, nearly 160 times the acceptable levels. He said these readings could

pose a health risk to children and added he feels the board has been remiss

in not conducting remediation efforts at the school to reduce these

readings.



He said there is little doubt the material under the gym and kindergarten at

Dr. Powers is radioactive and surmised fill brought in during the 1950

addition of the gym and kindergarten classroom contained historic low-level

radioactive material.



"Our children have been sitting on the floor covering the contaminated

material for the last 50 years, one crack in the concrete away from

potentially being dosed with high levels of radon," he said. "This is an

unacceptable risk for our children."



LLRWMO manager Glenn Case told council the KPR board gave Mr. McNamara

permission to review the radiological file on the school as recorded by the

LLRWMO. Because low-level radioactive waste from the uranium refinery, the

former Crown Corporation Eldorado Nuclear, was deposited in various areas

throughout the municipality during the 1940s, 1950s and early 1960s, some

properties were exposed to contaminated fill during construction. As a

result, radon gas, a natural by-product of uranium decay, has been

discovered in and around basements of some buildings constructed during this

period.



Mr. Case added there is an individual case file which details the

radiological history of all affected Port Hope properties. Each file also

includes if, when and what remediation was undertaken to clean up the

properties. During the 1980s, the LLRWMO conducted a major cleanup of

affected sites.



"We have nothing to hide," Mr. Case said, "and Mr. McNamara was allowed to

review the material."



However, Mr. McNamara has taken individual radon gas measurements and

presented them "completely out of context," Mr. Case explained. One spot

referred to by Mr. McNamara, an individual reading of 506 becquerels per

cubic metre, although correct, was recorded through a test drill hole at

floor level and cannot be compared to air quality in normally-occupied areas

of the school, said Mr. Case.



"A radon level under a cement floor slab is not an indicator of air quality

in the room," he said.



Radon gas dissipates very quickly into the air and only poses a health

hazard if present at high levels within a very confined space, he explained.

Air testing done at the school in 1976, a second school board-initiated

sampling of all area schools conducted in the 1980s, followed by testing

done by the LLRWM0 in the 1990s all consistently show radon levels well

below the recommended federal/provincial clean-up action criteria levels of

160 becquerels per cubic metre.



"The key is radon levels in the normally-occupied areas of the school are

totally acceptable and have been since 1976," he said.



Mr. Case explained the Health Canada guideline for exposure to radon gas is

set at 800 becquerels per cubic metre as the annual average concentration in

a normal living area; the LLRWMO uses the lower federal/provincial task

force benchmark of 160 becquerels per cubic metre as action level criteria.

Levels at Dr. Powers are under the latter range, he added.



A statement from Superintendent of Schools, Maureen Moloney, said testing at

the school in 1993 showed radon levels in the gym were above the normal

range found in most buildings, but well below levels requiring action by

federal and provincial authorities.



"Although not required to do so, the board decided to go beyond minimum

requirements and complete remedial work to bring radon levels down," said

Ms. Moloney.



Insulating foam was applied in the gym and further monitoring in 1995 and

1996 showed all areas occupied by students were well within the normal

range, she added.