In today's podcast we answer a listener's question about the dangers of radon. What do you need to do to protect your family from this monster in the basement?

Hello everyone. 

Thanks for tuning in to another podcast. 

I appreciate all of you taking time out of your day to listen.  As always, I’d love to hear from you if you

have a topic you would like me to discuss or suggestions for improvement.  The best way to reach me is through my

website sci-vs-fear.com.

Before I get started with today's topic, I got some feedback

on the childbirth

podcast from Gretchen.  She included

some research from the CDC that showed a large disparity in maternal mortality

between black and white women.  This

study showed that black women had 2-5 times the maternal deaths of white women.

https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2019/p0905-racial-ethnic-disparities-pregnancy-deaths.html

Upon looking into it, there were several studies exploring

the reason for the discrepancy.  All of

the authors acknowledged that attributing cause in cases like this is very

difficult.  I really appreciate Gretchen

bringing this to my attention.  In the

4-5 hours I have to research a topic, I am bound to miss something. 

The interesting thing to me is that the study I cited in the

podcast was also from the CDC, and it showed white women having slightly higher

maternal mortality.  So, who is

right?  I don't know.  Usually, when there is a discrepancy in data

the truth lies somewhere in the middle. 

These studies are a good demonstration of how the sample population can

change the study outcome.  One study that

I looked at found that some of the discrepancy is possibly due to the quality

of the hospitals more likely to be used by black mothers.  They found that white mothers using the same

hospitals, had similar outcomes.  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5915910/#R20 

That would make sense since much of the improvement in mortality we saw in the

1930s was attributable to improvements in medical care.

Gretchen also mentioned that in the US, maternal mortality

is on the rise and higher than Europe.  I

too had found this during my research. 

Determining the factors responsible for this uptick would certainly be

worth investigating.  I suspect the

answer is quite complex but worth pursuing. 

Thanks again for checking my facts and the input.

For today's podcast, I got a question from Brett. "I

recently had a salesman come to my house wanting to test it for radon.  He said that our area has high radon levels

and that my house could be poisoning my family. 

How dangerous is radon and am I putting my family at risk?"

So, today’s topic is

Radon: the monster living in the basement

Well, Brett, deciding to get your house checked and

potentially mitigated is a personal decision I can't make for you but there is

a lot of interesting information available.

The US attention to Radon began in 1984 when construction

engineer Stanley Watras headed into work at the Limerick nuclear power plant in

Pottstown Pennsylvania.