Latta Pavilion Is Sick. Taking Measure

March 20, 2008
Lynnsy Logue, The Real Estate Lady and CondoCanDo, Charlotte, NC

Chapter Two. Now you See It, Now You Don’t…This may require several parts but I feel compelled to talk about what I have read and ultimately who I will talk to about this and what links I can provide you the reader, the listener, the real estate consumer. This is serious. It is Radon. I think I will simply publish the whole story as it appeared in the Business Journal. I have been waiting for a follow up from someone…a newspaper, a radio report, a television, but nothing as of this date.I am going to put this on my blog as well. And will do my best to follow this through. This addresses my core concern…public health, public safety, consumer awareness.I will present the whole article as it appeared in the Business Journal on February 22, 2008. Counting this, here will be five parts:
1.Latta Pavilion Is Sick
2.Taking Measure
3.Solving The Problem
4.Still Selling
5.Getting a Read on Radon
Here goes:Taking measure
Grubb forwarded the results to contractor Rodgers Builders Inc., the original Latta Pavilion contractor.
Bill Brodhead, president of Riegelsville, Pa.-based radon-mitigation service WPB Enterprises, was brought in by Rodgers to analyze the severity of the problem and to help find a cure. "We know there is a situation there. I can't answer who, where or when."
Because of local soil conditions, Charlotte is not a typical candidate for high levels of radon, a radioactive gas and carcinogen formed in the rock and soil from the breakdown of uranium. It occurs naturally and can be found in low levels almost everywhere.
The gas can also come from building materials such as concrete or stone fireplaces.
Brodhead found radon readings in Latta Pavilion units ranging from 5 to 10 picocuries per liter, the unit of measurement that quantifies radioactive particles. The EPA says radon is dangerous in the home at 4 picocuries per liter.
He sent the results to Felix Fong, radon program manager for the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources' division of radiation protection in Raleigh, because the readings seemed to defy explanation. Radon typically pools in the lower level of a building because it seeps up from the ground. At Latta Pavilion, some of the highest readings were on the top floors.
Fong's explanation: The radon could be generated from the building materials inside the units. Radon is typically concentrated in areas with lots of granite, shale and phosphate in the soil. So building materials such as concrete or stone that originated from an area where radon occurs naturally at high levels would be a possible source.
If the radon in Latta Pavilion is coming primarily from building materials, Fong says the fix will not be easy. "Radon is a mysterious thing. It can slip in any crack or hole of a house."
Not so mysterious is the need to find a fix -- and someone to pay for it.
In a unit where the level of radon measures 8 picocuries, the chance for that resident to develop lung cancer is 14 out of 1,000, Fong estimates. By comparison, a pack-a-day smoker faces a 50 in 1,000 chance of developing lung cancer. Next: Solving The Problem