School Testing for Radon

Initial Approach

• Meet with the school’s facility manager to obtain a small floor plan of the building and to discuss school structure and dynamics. If the school is currently under renovation or renovations are planned for the near future you should postpone testing until renovations are completed. You should also meet with school’s principal or superintendent to discuss testing protocols and required communication with students, parents, and staff.
• Conduct a walk through inspection to determine testing areas and record the information on the floor plan of the building.
• The school administration shall conduct an informational meeting with representatives of parent and teacher organizations to provide an overview of the scheduled radon testing. The individual responsible for radon testing should attend to address any questions/concerns. Experience has shown that proactive pre-testing communication with parents and staff about why testing is required and what will be done if/when elevated levels are found minimizes concerns.
• Two weeks prior to the scheduled radon testing, the school administration shall notify parents of students and staff with a letter informing them of the scheduled radon testing.

A Citizen’s Guide to Radon pamphlets can be obtained on the web at http://www.epa.gov/radon/pubs/citguide.html. An electronic version can be emailed for distribution to staff and hard copies can be printed for distribution to parents.

When to Test

The EPA recommends that testing be performed in the colder months (i.e., October-March) when the required closed-building conditions are more likely to be maintained. It is also recommended that testing take place during the school week, so that HVAC settings are operating normally. Air Chek provides our ProChek 2-4 day test kits for school testing programs and recommends a test length of 3 days so that the test kits can be delivered and analyzed quickly. For example, test placements performed on a Monday can be retrieved on Thursday and returned to our laboratory via standard overnight courier service for Friday analysis. This combination allows for an optimal sampling period as well as the most accurate results due to the short time lag between the end of test and the laboratory analysis. You should also verify that unusual or severe weather is not predicted during the scheduled test period.

What Rooms to Test

The basic guidance states that measurements are to be made in all frequently occupied rooms in contact with the ground. (See the exhibits for details.) These rooms include classrooms, offices, labs, cafeterias, libraries, auditoriums and gymnasiums. Rooms that do not need to be tested are rest rooms, hallways, stairs, elevators, utility closets, storage areas, and the kitchen. Ground contact means any room over a crawl-space, slab-on-grade design, or in the basement.

Quality Control Spiked Samples

Contact Bowser-Morner as early in the project as possible to determine the most convenient spiking schedule and costs. You can reach Pam Kilburn at Bowser-Morner by calling (937) 236-8805 x259.

Placing Radon Detectors in a Room

It is advisable for two people to work as a team during device placement and retrieval activities. The radon test kits are shipped to you in sequential serial number order. One team member should be in charge of selecting the test kits from the box in sequence and opening the packet for deployment while the second completes the data log form, which contains the test kit placement information including the room number, location within the room, and the date/time each test is started. The person opening the kit should also write the room number on the test kit as a back up. Using the radon test kits in sequence will simplify the documentation requirements of your project.

The ProChek test kits are deployed in a manner so that the test kit hangs by the plastic hook, located adjacent to the 7-digit serial number. Once the square foam is inserted into the opening in the end of the test packet, it can be suspended by a piece of string, fishing line, or thumbtack. Crease the flat side of the test kit slightly as shown below and insert the foam filter into the squared opening so that the foam is flush with the edge of the kit. Write the room number on the test kit. A convenient placement location is from a thumbtack on a bulletin board near the teacher’s desk in a way that the opening of the test kit is not obstructed.

Placement reminders

Place the radon tests…

• away from drafts caused by heating, ventilating vents, air conditioning vents, fans, doors, and windows. At least three feet from doors and windows and preferably farther will help ensure that drafts do not interfere with the measurement.
• where they will not be touched or covered.
• away from direct sunlight.
• away from sources of humidity (avoid placing near sinks, aquariums, or showers).
• at least 20 inches from the floor.
• at least 12 inches from outside/exterior walls of the building.

Animated Instructions” in the bottom right corner of the screen.

Ending the Tests

After 3 days have elapsed you should return to the school and retrieve the kits in the approximate order in which they were deployed. One person takes down the kit, removes the plastic hook, discards the foam filter, and seals the test kit shut by removing the waxy strip and pinching the kit closed. The second person should be recording the ending date and time on the data log while making observations that need to be documented in the comments column, such as tampering of the kit, the test kit was missing, or the windows were open upon arrival.

Once all kits are sealed and the hooks removed, the kits should be placed into a box and returned to the laboratory immediately. The best case scenario is to use standard overnight courier services to return the devices to us for next day analysis. Some schools prefer to save on the cost of return shipping and opt for 2-day shipping options. Regardless of the method chosen, you should ensure that the kits arrive in our laboratory no later than 4 days from the date that the tests ended.

Sending the radon tests to the laboratory

Use of the Data Log Forms

Blank data logs should be obtained from Air Chek in order to create a record of the test kit placement and retrieval records. The data logs can be obtained by e-mail (info@radon.com) or downloaded from http://radon-pro.com in the Documents section. The data log holds data for 20 kits per page, so make plenty of copies for each testing project. Again, we advise that you work in pairs during the placement of the kits. One person will complete the data logs while the other person is removing the test kit from the plastic packaging, inserting the foam filter, recording the room number on the kit and hanging it at the chosen location. There is no need to write the test address, dates and times, floor or temperature on the test packet.

The original data logs should be taken back to the school when the test kits are being retrieved at the end of the test so that all of the test data will be kept together. The completed data logs will be used to create an Excel spreadsheet that will be e-mailed to Air Chek prior to analysis. In fact, the spreadsheet should be created once the tests are all started in order to save data entry time at the end of the tests.

Spreadsheet Submission

Make sure that you have an electronic copy of the spreadsheet (XLS file) that we provided to your contact person in our database. Once the data from the written logs has been transferred into the Excel spreadsheet, the completed spreadsheet should be e-mailed to info@radon.com. The spreadsheet needs to be received at Air Chek by noon the day the test kits arrive for analysis because the spreadsheet contains the data that will be used to determine the final radon concentrations as well as the data for the report.

Mobile web app

For those clients that will be performing five hundred or more tests Air Chek offers new cloud-based solution that can be used on any mobile device.

The Scanner app is a redesign of our Android DataLogger application with the goal of making the deployment of small and large-scale radon testing programs even easier. The app is implemented as a mobile web app and has the following advantages:

Run anywhere – Use any mobile device with a web browser
Offline first – App remains accessible even with no Internet connection
Cloud-based – Your work is saved locally and synced when you come back online

For more information, see here.

 

School testing projects need to include quality assurance procedures that will ensure that the testing is meaningful and test results are reliable. It is advised that you develop a quality assurance plan prior to initiating the testing project. If you need assistance in developing a plan, a template is available from Air Chek. The required quality control measures include blanks, duplicates, and spikes. These measurements should be made in a way that we at Air Chek do not know that they are a part of the quality assurance process until after the lab analysis is complete.

Field Blanks

Field blanks are radon test kits that are not exposed to room air and are used to determine whether the test kits have been contaminated during storage. Field blanks are opened and immediately re-sealed to keep room air from infiltrating the test kit. Blanks are required to be used at a rate of 5% of the rooms tested or 1 out of every 20 rooms. While radon cannot travel through the plastic and enter the charcoal during storage, humidity in the storage area may be able to find a pathway through tiny leaks in the packaging. Excessive moisture finding its way into the charcoal can reduce the effectiveness of the test kits.

Blanks should be pulled from the first box of test kits immediately upon receipt. These blanks will be used to set a baseline for the amount of moisture contained in the new test kits. Since it is also recommended that you pull kits from the first box for immediate spiking (see below), the initial blanks pulled from the first box of kits are held in your office until the spikes are returned to you from the radon chamber (spiking) facility. Assessing the moisture content of blanks over the course of the testing project can be used to ensure that the storage of the kits is not jeopardizing the quality of the test kits.

Duplicates

Duplicates should be performed at a rate 10% of all non QC tests. Duplicates are two radon tests that are hung side-by-side (6-12 inches apart) and are used to determine the reproducibility of the test kit and laboratory analysis. The EPA school testing guidance recommends assessing duplicates for rooms that have more than 4.0 pCi/L when the two results are averaged. Appendix E of the EPA School Guidance contains specific guidance and calculations that are to be used to assess quality control measurements.

The standard formula for the grading of duplicate measurements is as follows:

RPD = abs(D1-D2) / avg(D1+D2) x 100%

where:

RPD = Relative Percent Difference

D1 = measured value of the first duplicate

D2 = measured value of the second duplicate

ABS = absolute value of D1-D2

AVG = average value of D1 and D2

* ABS() and AVG() are standard functions in Excel

Spikes

Spiked measurements are exposed in a radon chamber to a known amount of radon and then returned to the laboratory without the laboratory’s knowledge. Air Chek’s calibration is performed using the Bowser-MornerRadon Reference Laboratory, therefore we recommend only the Bowser-Morner spiking services to make sure that spikes are done in an facility that has no conflict-of-interest. Some spiking facilities are competitors to Air Chek and the perception of a conflict should be avoided. Bowser-Morner is the industry’s standard radon chamber and they participate in intercomparison exercises with the US EPA’s Las Vegas radon laboratory. Once the laboratory analysis has been performed you should assess the accuracy of the measurements.

The standard formula for the grading of spikes is as follows:

IRE = (MV – TV)/TV x 100%

where:

IRE = Individual Relative Error

MV = measured value of the spiked sample

TV = target value of the radon chamber

All IRE for spiked samples should be less than or equal to 25%. Spikes must be performed at a rate of 3% of the samples used for the school project, with a minimum of 3 per year and a maximum of 6 per month.

It is recommended that you perform spikes immediately upon receipt of the test devices at the same time you pull samples for the initial Field Blanks. You will submit the samples to be spiked to Bowser-Morner. They will expose the kits to a known amount of radon and will return the samples to you when they are removed from the chamber. You will need to report the actual dates and times that kits were placed into and removed from the radon chamber so that the samples can be analyzed in our laboratory using the actual exposure dates. For the initial blanks, it is recommended that you use the same dates and times as used for the spiked samples. We recommend that you create a false school or building name for the initial blanks and spikes so that the data can be combined to look like actual testing data. Once the logs are complete, you will return the samples to the laboratory in the same package. It is recommended that you make notations on the permanent copy of the data logs that these were QA samples and make sure you distinguish which ones were blanks and which were spikes.

You will keep all quality control measurement records in your files so that they can be assessed and summarized at the end of the testing project. By performing quality control measurements on new kits and periodically throughout the testing project and again at the end of the project, you will have a series of measurement that can be used to identify potential problems or to document the accuracy and reliability of the test results.

Contact Bowser-Morner as early in the project as possible to determine the most convenient spiking schedule and costs. You can reach Pam Kilburn at Bowser-Morner by calling (937) 236-8805 x259.

Sample Charts

This sample spike chart displays the IRE threshold of spiked samples. The IRE for Tests above 4 pCi/L and tests for between 2 and 4 pCi/L is automatically scaled to the appropriate levels so that only need to look to see if anything has exceeded warning or critical levels.

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This sample duplicate chart displays the RPD of duplicate measurements. The RPD for Tests above 4 pCi/L and tests for between 2 and 4 pCi/L is automatically scaled to the appropriate levels so that you only need to look to see if anything has exceeded warning or critical levels.

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This sample blank chart demonstrates the readings of your blank samples as well as the measured percentage moisture of the tests. Tracking the moisture allows you to determine if storage conditions may be affecting the efficacy of the test devices.

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Follow-up requirements

Follow-up testing (when needed) shall start within one month after receiving the initial test results. Follow-up testing must be made in the same location and under the same conditions as the initial measurement.

Interpretation of follow-up results

• Take action to reduce the radon level if the average of the initial and follow-up measurement is 4.0 pCi/L or more.
• Provide school administration with a complete report that includes all testing related documentation, results and interpretations.
• Recommend that school administration hire a radon mitigation professional licensed by the Ohio Department of Health to reduce elevated radon levels identified through testing. The OD Health list of licensed professionals can be accessed on the web by using the Ohio radon mitigator search. This list contains both active and inactive licensees so be sure to check the license expiration date. If you have any questions about the list, call the ODH Radon Licensing Program at 614-466-0061.

Completion and Reporting

Fill out and sign the ODH School Radon Testing Report Form. The form shall be sent within ten working days of providing the school with a complete report. The form should be faxed to 614-466-0381 or mailed to the following address:

School Radon Testing Program
Ohio Department of Health
Bureau of Radiation Protection
246 N. High St. 7th Flr. 35 Bldg.
Columbus, OH 43215-0118

School administrators shall notify parents and staff of radon testing results in a brief summary as soon as possible but no later than one month after follow-up test results are received. If elevated radon levels exist, the notification should include the school’s plan to reduce the level. A copy of all testing documentation shall be kept in the main office of the school for parents, staff and ODH inspectors to views.

Requirements

Your project report will need to contain more than just the radon test results. In addition, the final report should describe weather condition, a description of any device tampering that was noticed, follow-up recommendations, and any additional pertinent information. Air Chek will supply you with the final radon test results.

The test report formats and delivery methods are set up at the time of sale. The Air Chek reporting system is triggered by the test kit serial numbers, so as they arrive for analysis an automated system creates and delivers the reports the day the radon test kits are analyzed, Monday through Friday. Although the laboratory operates on Saturdays, the test report distribution will not occur until the following business day.

School test reports are distributed via e-mail in two formats. The first format is an Excel XLS file that can be used to search for and correct typos in items such as the school names and room numbers. When errors are found, the spreadsheet can be returned to Air Chek via e-mail for corrections. The formal report is transmitted as a PDF document. Once the final PDF file has been received, we recommend that you print one copy that will be stapled to the original handwritten data logs and maintained in an official testing file at the school or designated facility.

Resources

• The EPA’s online document Radon in Schools may be of interest to schools wishing to provide resources to their students to learn about radon and why radon testing is being performed in their school.
• The EPA’s Citizen’s Guide to Radon is also an excellent document for those wishing to learn more about radon.