New findings from a study of women who have gone through menopause suggest that those living in areas with higher estimated indoor radon levels may be at higher risk of heart failure. The study, published today in JAMA Network Open, was led by researchers at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, and adds the newest evidence that radon exposure may pose a significant risk to heart health among aging women.
Radon has long been linked to lung cancer, but a growing body of research has also uncovered links between increased radon exposure and common cardiovascular diseases like heart attack and stroke . Yet current United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) radon policy remains exclusively focused on preventing lung cancer, highlighting the continued importance of radon-cardiovascular disease association studies.
"Heart failure is a globally burdensome and increasingly common form of cardiovascular disease among aging women," said lead author, Shu Chen, research collaborator in the Gillings School's Department of Epidemiology, "so identifying readily testable and modifiable factors, like home radon levels, that may be related to it in this at-risk population is critical."
Radon is a colorless and odorless, yet radioactive gas that passes from bedrock and soil through basement floor slabs, porous or cracked foundation walls, and crawlspaces into homes where it can build up. Currently, the EPA recommends testing all homes and reducing radon levels greater than 4 picocuries per liter of indoor air (pCi/L), a process called "mitigation". Recent data suggest that approximately one quarter of the U.S. population may reside in places that exceed this level.
In the study, which involved more than 43,000 postmenopausal women with an average age of 63, those living in areas with estimated indoor radon levels greater than 4 pCi/L had a higher risk of heart failure than those living in areas with levels below 2 pCi/L, particularly among women with a history of smoking.
Notably, the radon-related risk of heart failure was similar to that associated with substantial increases in systolic blood pressure and body mass index, two established heart failure risk factors.
Eric A. Whitsel, MD, MPH , senior author of the study and professor of epidemiology at the Gillings School, emphasized that "the cardiovascular health benefits of radon mitigation remain unknown." Despite that, he also noted that, "the benefits are plausible and may be analogous to the once-unrecognized benefits of smoking cessation, long before cigarette and environmental tobacco smoke were identified as risk factors for non-pulmonary disease."
Chen added that, "EPA-recommended testing is simple, and reducing radon exposure benefits everyone who lives in the home."
The EPA provides information on radon test kits on their website. Kits can also be found in home improvement stores and sometimes through state-funded radon programs, such as the one in the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services .
Additional authors on the study include Jason M. Collins, PhD, MPH, Carson Mowrer, MS, MPH, Cuiran Shi, MS, Ayesha Ekanayaka, PhD, James D. Stewart, MA, GISP, and Richard L. Smith, PhD.
