• Posted February 20, 2025

Radon Exposure Linked to Increased Asthma Symptoms in Children

A radioactive gas could be contributing to asthma among schoolkids, researchers have found.

Children exposed to elevated levels of radon gas tended to have more asthma symptoms, results show.

“Residential radon has not previously been described as an environmental risk factor for asthma,” a team led by Dr. Wanda Phipatanakul, director of immunology research with Boston Children’s Hospital, concluded.

“For the first time, we demonstrate a relationship between residential radon exposure and airway inflammation and asthma symptoms among school‐aged children with asthma,” researchers wrote recently in the journal Pediatric Pulmonology.

Radon is a naturally occurring radioactive gas that’s odorless and invisible, occurring to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). It emanates from the breakdown of trace amounts of uranium found in soil.

Homes can fill with radon as it seeps out of soil and up through cracks and crevices, the CDC says. It is the second-leading cause of lung cancer deaths in the U.S. after cigarette smoke.

For the study, researchers tracked the health of nearly 300 children with asthma attending inner-city schools.

The team compared kids’ radon exposure in their homes -- estimated based on ZIP code -- to their asthma symptoms.

Asthmatic kids exposed to radon tended to have more days with asthma symptom flare-ups, researchers found. They also suffered from increased airway inflammation as warm weather turned cold.

“It is known radon levels may fluctuate seasonally, with indoor levels typically higher during winter months, at a time when windows and doors are more often shut limiting natural ventilation,” researchers wrote.

The use of heaters and the compacting of cold soil during the winter also can create pressure differences that might draw more radon gas into the house, researchers added. 

The risk posed by radon is akin to that from gas stoves, Dr. Joyce Yu noted in a recent review of the study published in the journal Pediatrics.

“In recent years, some local municipalities, and even New York state, have banned the use of gas stoves in new buildings to reduce indoor pollutant exposures in the homes over concerns for possible environmental impacts and health risks, such as childhood asthma,” wrote Yu, a pediatric allergy and immunology specialist with Columbia University Irving Medical Center in New York City.

“Results from studies like this could help inform scientists, environmental advocates, and lawmakers who are investigating environmental and climate change issues and could potentially impact governmental initiatives and future legislation,” she concluded.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more about radon gas.

SOURCES: Pediatrics, research review, Dec. 1, 2024; Pediatric Pulmonology, April 2023