Health Risk of Radon
Cited in 2 Likelier entries (2 risks, 0 decisions).
Used in 2 entries
For each citing entry, the verbatim excerpt and Likelier's calculation notes (how the source's number was converted to the lifetime-probability framing) are shown below. Click through to read the full claim ledger.
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- Statistic
Radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer in the US and the leading cause in never-smokers; ~21,000 radon-related lung cancer deaths per year, including ~2,900 in never-smokers
“"Radon is the number one cause of lung cancer among non-smokers [...] radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer. [...] Radon is responsible for about 21,000 lung cancer deaths every year. [...] About 2,900 of these deaths occur among people who have never smoked."”
Calculation notes
EPA radon figures are used as the basis for the "radon exposure" personal factor multiplier and for the body text on never-smoker lung cancer. ~2,900 never-smoker radon deaths across ~180 million US never-smoker adults implies a baseline annual rate on the order of 0.016 per 1,000, which compounds over 60 years to ~0.1% — small in absolute terms but non-trivial and actionable through home radon testing. The multiplicative interaction between radon and smoking is the classical Darby et al. 2005 BMJ pooled analysis finding.
Independence note: EPA radon estimates are based on the BEIR VI National Research Council model and on independent environmental sampling — methodologically independent of the ACS/SEER cancer mortality pipeline.
Source date: 2024-06-12 · Accessed: 2026-04-11
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- Statistic
Radon causes ~21,000 US lung cancer deaths/year; ~2,900 among never-smokers; 1 in 15 US homes at or above 4 pCi/L action level
“"Radon is the number one cause of lung cancer among non-smokers [...] radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer. [...] Radon is responsible for about 21,000 lung cancer deaths every year. [...] About 2,900 of these deaths occur among people who have never smoked. [...] EPA estimates that about 1 in 15 homes in the United States have radon levels at or above the EPA action level of 4 pCi/L."”
Calculation notes
Primary source for the 21,000 annual radon-attributable lung cancer deaths, the 2,900 never-smoker subset, and the 1-in-15 home prevalence at the action level. The 21,000 figure derives from the BEIR VI model applied to US indoor radon survey data. 21,000 / 260M US adults = ~8.1e-5 annual rate; 2,900 / 160M never-smoker adults = ~1.8e-5. These rates compound over 60 adult years to ~0.0048 (all adults) and ~0.0011 (never-smokers at average exposure).
Independence note: EPA radon estimates are based on the National Research Council BEIR VI model and on independent residential radon survey data, methodologically independent of the Darby and Krewski pooled epidemiological analyses.
Source date: 2024-06-12 · Accessed: 2026-04-18
