SEPA JANUARY IS NATIONAL ji RADON ACTION MONTH Qi EfiJ Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) NATIONAL RADON ACTION MONTH NEWSLETTER DECEMBER 2010 Welcome to EPAs December 2010 National Radon Action Month Newsletter. Below, you will find information regarding the 2011 National Radon Action Month and other ongoing radon outreach activities. These activities all support the Radon Leaders Saving Lives Campaign to save lives from radon exposure. IN THIS ISSUE: ~ Gearing Up for the 2011 National Radon Action Month ~ Federal Agencies Join Efforts to Fight Radon Exposure ~ National Radon Poster Contest - Winners Announced ~ Read Successful NRAM Stories on RadonLeaders.org ~ This Edition's Checklist ~ Tel! Us What You Think Gearing Up for the 2011 National Radon Action Month Join members of the radon community from across the country in conducting NRAM activities to raise awareness about the health effect of radon exposure. Let's make this year's NRAM even more successful and impactful than last year! Visit EPA's NRAM website for ideas on how to join the national effort to save lives from radon exposure. JANUARY IS NATIONAL RADON Activities are being accepted now through February 2011. All activities submitted must have a start date between October 1. 2010 and February 28, 2011, to be included in our final reporting for this year. Things you can do now: • Submit your activity on RadonLeaders.org. Fill out the easy, step-by-step activity submittal form (http://www. radonleaders.org/nram/addevent) online to add your NRAM activities. Follow the guidelines (http://www.radonleaders. oig 'nram/reporting) to ensure your activities will be accurately included in the NRAM results report. • Upload a spreadsheet of your NRAM activities using the Event Upload page (http://www.radonleaders.org/nram/upload). This new option allows stakeholders to submit up to 500 activities at once to our national database. To download the spreadsheet template (http://www.radonleaders.org/sites), read instructions (http://www.radonleaders.org/sites) and begin uploading your activities, visit the Event Upload page (http://www.radonleaders.org/nram/upload). ------- National Radon Action Month Newsletter December 2010 • View activities submitted by other Radon Leaders. Learn what others in the radon community are doing - browse activities (http://www.radonleaders.org/nram/events) by state, year, event category or keyword. Export your search lists into Excel for easy sharing and organizing. Visit EPA's NRAM website or RadonLeaders.org (http://www.radonleaders.org/nram) for more information 011 participating in NRAM. Federal Agencies Join Efforts to Fight Radon Exposure Recently, EPA convened leaders from federal agencies for an historic event to generate momentum and create new opportunities for radon risk reduction. This diverse group of leaders, including Department of Defense, DOD; Veterans Administration, VA; Department of Energy, DOE; U.S. General Sendees Administration, GSA; Department of Housing and Urban Development, HUD; Department of Health and Human Sendees, HI-IS; U.S. Department of Agriculture, USDA; and U.S. Department of Interior, DOI, discussed ways the federal government can do more to reduce radon risk in the housing and buildings it owns or influences. Participants at the summit will reconvene in 90 days to discuss specific actions the Federal Government can take through existing programs to protect families by creating safe and healthy home environments. Learn more about the Federal Radon Summit and stay tuned for updates by visiting http://www.epa.gov/radon/federal_summit. html. National Radon Poster Contest - Winners Announced Congratulations to the winners for this year's National Radon Poster Contest (http://sosradon.org/poster-contest)! After convening a judging panel to identify the top 10 national entries, and reviewing the results of online voting, Kansas State University (K-State) has determined these winners and a special mention: • First Place - "Keep Your Family Safe" - Logan, Age 14 of Dania, Florida • Second Place - "Do You Test Your Home for Radon?" - Darwin, Age 9 of Virginia Beach, Virginia • Third Place - "Test Your Home for Radon" - Divya, Age 13 of Bridgewater, New Jersey • Special Mention - "Radon is the Second Leading Cause of Lung Cancer" - Bailey, Age 14 of Athens, Georgia Click on each poster image below to view a larger version. Visit the K-State National Radon Poster Contest website (http:// sosradon.org/2011-poster-contest-wimiers) to view all of the winning posters. DO YOU TEST YOUR HOME FOR RADON? DO YOU TEST TOUfi HOME FOR RADOU? LUNG CANCER Rfldton ii the 2^ leading cause of lung cancer i Itest KING CANCER ------- National Radon Action Month Newsletter December 2010 This year, 4,000 posters were submitted from 33 states, six tribal nations and a military installation. And for the first time, radon stakeholders were able vote for their favorite posters online. Over 130 members of RadonLeaders.org logged-on to vote for their top three posters from the ten national finalists. Voters also had the opportunity to provide feedback on their selections and the online voting process. Thank you to everyone who visited our online voting platform! The first, second and third place National Radon Poster Contest winners - as well a parent and teacher for each winner - will be recognized at an awards ceremony on Jan. 14, 2011, during the 2011 I AO Tools for Schools National Symposium. Each of the top posters will also be reproduced and distributed nationally to promote radon awareness and outreach. As part of your National Radon Action Month outreach, there are several ways that you can recognize state/local contest winners, and help promote radon awareness, including: • Post announcements about your local contest winners on your organization's website or social media platforms (such as Facebook, Twitter or blogs); • Record interviews with winners and post online (video interviews with the national winners will be recorded and made available online at www.sosradon.org/poster-contest/testimonials); • Invite winners to participate in NRAM proclamation ceremonies hosted by local government officials; • Send a press release or digital press release to local media outlets announcing local contest winners. Tools for planning these and other recognition activities are available in the National Radon Poster Contest Outreach Kit (http:// sosradon.org/files/sosradon/Radon_Poster_Contest_OutreachKit_090310.pdf), offered on the National Radon Poster Contest website. For more information about the contest, please visit the K-State National Radon Poster Contest website (http://sosradon.org/ poster-contest) or contact Bruce Snead from K-State at Radon@ksu.edu. Read Successful NRAM Stories on RadonLeaders.org With NRAM approaching, several radon stakeholders have posted materials reflecting on their experience from the 2010 NRAM on RadonLeaders.org - with the hope that these materials will help others prepare for NRAM outreach in 2011. These success stories represent a small sample of the innovative and effective outreach that was conducted last year. These and other stories show how stakeholders continue to think of new ways to engage their communities during National Radon Action Month, and throughout the year. • Jorge Laguna from the Florida Department of Health posted a blog (http://www.radonleaders.org/node/8216) about their partnership with the "Free to Breathe" Walk/Run event in November of 2009. The post highlights how partnering with this lung cancer awareness activity helped to raise radon awareness. • Vivian Craig, from the Navajo Nation Environmental Protection Agency's Radon Program, posted a blog (http://www. radonleaders.org/node/8277) detailing her organization's outreach to students at a Navajo immersion school. The post highlights their use of the native Navajo language and hands-on activities to engage students in their community. RadonLeaders.org offers several ways for you to interact with your peers and share results, best practices and other thoughts about your NRAM outreach. Take advantage of the interactive features available on RadonLeaders.org - including blogs (http:// www.radonleaders.org/discuss/blogs), discussion forums (http://www.radonleaders.org/discuss/forum) and "Share Your NRAM Story" (http://www.radonleaders.org/nram/share) submissions. Visit RadonLeaders.org (http://www.radonleaders.org/) today if you are interested in sharing your NRAM stories through any of our interactive channels. ------- National Radon Action Month Newsletter December 2010 This Edition's Checklist 0 Submit your 2011 National Radon Action Month activities and events via the single-event submittal form (http://www. radonleaders.org/nram/addevent) or the batch upload page (http://www.radonleaders.org/nram/upload). 0 View helpful resources on both EPA's National Radon Action Month website and on RadonLeaders.org (http://www. radonleaders.org/nram). 0 Share (http://www.radonleaders.org/nram/share) your results, best practices and success stories for National Radon Action Month to let other radon leaders know how you made an impact. 0 Read more about the Federal Radon Summit and the agencies that are joining to promote radon risk reduction. Tell Us What You Think Is there a topic related to National Radon Action Month you want to see covered in the Newsletter or discussed at a webinar? Need more information or have a quick question? Let us know by sending an e-mail to radonevents@ c admusgroup. com. Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) ------- |