State Sen. Wayne Fontana says he is frustrated that year after year, bills mandating school radon testing gain no support. (Shane Dunlap | Tribune-Review)
Story by DEB ERDLEY and MEGAN TOMASIC
Oct. 9, 2022
State Sen. Wayne Fontana didn’t mince words.
When it comes to getting a law passed requiring radon testing in schools, “I think it’s going to take a tragedy of some sort,” said Fontana, a Democrat from Pittsburgh’s Brookline neighborhood.
He was alluding to a 2019 fatal fire at an Erie daycare center that led to passage of a bill requiring smoke detectors on every floor of daycare centers.
“Being a Realtor, I know (radon is) a silent killer,” Fontana said. “It’s something people don’t even realize is there.”
Fontana said he is frustrated that year after year, bills mandating school testing gain no support despite federal warnings that Pennsylvania has the nation’s third-highest level of the radioactive gas in its soil.
In the past decade, at least five bills requiring testing in schools have been introduced in the state House and then shifted to committee, where they languished without a hearing or committee vote, records show.
Hesitation to pass those bills comes as an estimated 21,000 Americans — 1,400 in Pennsylvania — die each year because of exposure to the naturally occurring colorless, odorless gas that makes its way into basements through virtually any opening, according to the American Lung Association.
State Rep. Bob Brooks, a Murrysville Republican, co-sponsored a bill that required testing because it dealt with children’s health, but he said he believes it died because it did not contain state funding to perform testing and mitigation.
Nathan Mains, CEO of the Pennsylvania School Boards Association, said providing funding for such mandates will be crucial. He said “school districts” must weigh the priorities of protecting students and being responsible stewards of local tax dollars.
“PSBA is not opposed to radon testing but believes it is vitally important that this mandate is fully funded before it is imposed on public school districts,” Mains said.
Testing costs can be minimal, according to supporters.
The average cost of hiring a contractor to test for radon is about $1,500 for each school building within a district, said Nathaniel Burden, president of the Pennsylvania chapter of the American Association of Radon Scientists and Technologists. The cost of remediation can range from $3,000 to $10,000, depending on the size of the school district and what needs to be done, he said.
His organization has offered to train school maintenance employees to conduct testing, further paring costs.
He said costs will be higher for larger districts with more buildings. Hempfield Area, for instance, spent $12,000 to test for radon, according to Superintendent Tammy Wolicki.
Even if each of the state’s 500 public school districts spent $10,000 on radon testing, the price tag would be $5 million, according to state budget and education department records.
In comparison, the state’s budget for basic education for kindergarten through 12th grade is $7.6 billion.
Some testing supporters say talk of prohibitive costs are a smokescreen. They said political differences have killed action on legislation.
A spokesman for state Sen. Christine Tartaglione, a Philadelphia Democrat who also penned a radon testing bill, said that has been the case time after time in the Senate. Tartaglione’s bill failed to snare a single Republican co-sponsor.
“Great legislation means nothing when the majority party blocks Democratic bills left and right,” said Tartaglione spokesman William Gelgot. Nonetheless, he said, Tartaglione is committed to making another run at legislation next year.
Groups such as the League of Women Voters note that Republican leaders, who have controlled the Legislature for 23 of the last 27 years, often refuse to move measures sponsored by Democrats.
Fix Harrisburg, a study sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania and the nonprofit citizens group Fair Districts Pennsylvania, found that only about 1.5% of Democratic bills introduced in the House have passed in recent years, said Carol Kuniholm, a longtime activist with the state’s League of Women Voters group.
“And the last time I checked this year, 0% of bills introduced by Democrats had passed,” Kuniholm said. “A significant number of bills that pass are ceremonial — resolutions naming bridges or roads or designating something like Lead Awareness Day. Substantive bills solving real problems for the people of Pennsylvania are very few.”
“Good-faith debate” needs to occur among lawmakers from both parties, said Dr. Ned Ketyer, a pediatrician with Allegheny Health Network.
“I think it will take legislators learning about the problem and then discussing the problem in good faith with those who are in their party and those who are not in their party,” he said.
State Rep. Curt Sonney, an Erie Republican, chairs the House Education Committee where numerous radon testing bills introduced by Democratic state Rep. Tim Briggs of Montgomery County have died. He denied that politics has anything to do with it.
He said school districts with radon concerns should take it upon themselves to test.
“I think (radon) seems to have fallen off the radar,” Sonney said. “What legislators are hearing about the most in their district are the things that get attention. I don’t think anybody is talking about radon.
“I don’t think it takes a tragedy. I think it takes an awareness of the citizens to start speaking up about it.”
Deb Erdley and Megan Tomasic are Tribune-Review staff writers. Deb can be reached at derdley@triblive.com, and Megan can be reached at mtomasic@triblive.com.