Jimmy Deenihan (Kerry North, Fine Gael)

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for allowing me raise this matter on the Adjournment. The Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland found during the course of a national survey, published in 1999, that in parts of County Kerry, particularly the Tralee and Castleisland areas, there were inordinate levels of the potentially dangerous radioactive gas, radon.

In July 2003 a test carried out by the Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland found the highest levels of radon ever identified in Ireland in a house in the Castleisland area. The householder had requested this survey. The house had radon concentrations of approximately 49,000 becquerels. This was almost 250 times higher than the national reference level for radon in homes and one of the highest values ever recorded in Europe.

The householder's wife had died five years earlier from lung cancer and in 2002 the householder was diagnosed with lung cancer. As both people were young, healthy and non-smokers, a medical expert advised them to have their home tested for radon gas. Last November the householder died. He said publicly that radon was the cause of his wife's death, and no doubt it was the cause of his own death.

A radon expert likened exposure to one day's radon in this household to one week's exposure to the radioactive plant in Sellafield. Along a one-mile stretch of road, which includes this household, nine people, many middle-aged and younger, have died from cancer over the past decade. This should surely be enough for the Departments of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, and Health and Children to take appropriate and urgent action to deal with this problem.

Owing to the discovery in this household, the Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland carried out a survey of 377 homes in the Castleisland area. Of those surveyed, 52 were found to have radon concentration above the recommended level, six had five times the recommended level while one had the highest concentration ever found in Ireland. The fact that of the 2,500 households contacted by the RPII, just 413 requested radon test kits and 377 sent the kit back for analysis, gives rise to serious concern. The possibility is that, based on this sample, up to 400 homes could have radon levels over the recommended level and the people living in them could be exposed to the risk of contracting lung cancer.

In the survey, eight homes in Tralee were found to have radon levels ten times over the recommended level. Last November, the town council advised every householder in the Tralee area to test their house for radon levels. I understand the council will provide the testing equipment free to their own tenants. The reason for the extraordinarily high levels of radon gas in the Castleisland-Tralee-Fenit areas of County Kerry is due to underlying karstic limestone overlain by shale, known to contain high uranium concentration levels. Karstic limestone contains underground caves and streams which facilitate the movement and accumulation of radon gas.

There is a need to carry out tests in all schools in the area. In the 1999 survey, 22% of schools in Kerry were found to have radon levels over the recommended level. In 2001, the RPII initiated a programme to direct employers responsible for above ground workplaces in high radon areas to measure radon concentration levels. The institute issued 1,800 such directions to employers in the Tralee area. The response at the time was poor. Of the 200 employers who carried out radon measurements in their workplaces, 30 had radon concentrations greater than the reference level of 400 becquerels per cubic metre, specified in the Radiological Protection Act 1991 (Ionising Radiation) Order 2000.

It is now time for a comprehensive programme to be put in place in the Castleisland-Tralee-Fenit area to reduce exposure to radon. There is a precedent for this in countries such as Sweden, the UK and the USA where radioactive hotspots are targeted for remediation work. Intervention by the State either with free testing to help identify if there is a risk, and with grant support for remedial works in houses over the recommended levels, appears to be the only way forward.

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