Hidden danger: Radon could be lurking in Pittsburgh-area schools

PITTSBURGH — A cancer-causing gas could be in your child’s school and you may not even know it.

The Environmental Protect Agency considers Western Pennsylvania to have a high or moderate potential for radon, but no law requires school districts to check for it.

Gateway Middle School in Monroeville installed a mitigation system 11 years ago after tests revealed high levels of radon at the school.

"It's up to us to make sure that it's not in where our kids and our staff are," said Robert Brown, Gateway’s director of facilities.

Radon is a radioactive gas that's the second leading cause of lung cancer.

SEE RADON LEVELS FOR YOUR AREA HERE

Target 11 checked with the 20 largest school districts in the Pittsburgh-area to find out if any have voluntarily tested for radon in the past 10 years.

Shaler, Fox Chapel and Greater Latrobe school districts have and they said the results met EPA guidelines.

Six districts have not.

Two districts requested an extension to check their records, and nine did not respond to our requests for information.

The Shaler Area school district just tested all its buildings following a district family’s request.

District leaders told Target 11 out of 466 tests, five came back with elevated results.

"The safety of our staff and students is one of our top priorities, so anything that we can do to ensure that, the District is going to take those measures," said district spokeswoman Bethany Hofstetter.

Shaler plans to re-test the areas that showed levels higher than the EPA’s recommended guidelines.

Gateway is re-testing all of its schools this month.

“It’s about the kids,” said Brown. “If you read up on radon, what it is, you’re not able to smell it, taste it, see it but it is there in this part of the country. We have it all over the place so it’s up to us to make sure that it’s not in where are kids and staff are.”