A child care center in Durango was forced to close this week when teachers refused to come to work after recent radon testing showed levels exceeded state safety standards.
“I didn’t want to go back to work,” said Jenn Tom, a teacher at the Tri-County Head Start program at the Roberta Shirley Center. “If this would have come to my attention sooner, I would have walked out a long time ago.”
On Friday, the center sent a letter to teachers and parents that said initial radon sampling taken over the winter break found levels inside the building were higher than recommended by the state health department.
A Head Start pre-school program for children ages 3 to 5 years old, targeted at low-income families, is run at the center, 2019 East Third Ave. About 70 children take part in the five-day-a-week programs, which are 7:30 a.m. to noon or a full day, 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The letter says the center will retest this week to confirm the levels, as well as address additional concerns for lead and mold. And during that time, the child care facility will “be open and operate as normal.”
Mandy Clark, the interim executive director who signed the letter, told The Durango Herald on Monday it was the health department’s recommendation to remain open during testing.
“However, there were a handful of staff that did not want to be here because of their own confusion and concerns,” Clark said. “Right now, we just don’t have the staff to stay open.”
In 2015, the Colorado health department approved a regulation that required child care centers to test for radon at their facilities by May 2017, and if levels exceeded safety standards, make necessary mitigations.
Clark said radon testing was conducted at the center during the two-week winter break, and it took about three weeks before it received the results that indicated the presence of radon at potentially unsafe levels.
Clark said she was unable to verify the levels to the Herald on Monday, but wanted to assure teachers and parents that the proper steps were being taken to ensure “our families are safe.”
The building is owned by the city of Durango. On Monday, City Manager Ron LeBlanc said the Roberta Shirley Center was supposed to send the results of the initial sampling, but failed to do so. He said the city regularly tests its buildings for radon, but did not have specific information available on the center.
Wendy Rice, with the Colorado State University Cooperative Extension Office in Durango, said Monday there’s “no need to create stress” for teachers or parents with children who attend the school at this point.
“This was strictly a screening,” Rice said. “And you can’t make a diagnosis off a screening.”
Rice said results for radon at the Roberta Shirley Center came back greater than 4 picoCuries per liter, the threshold for human health according to the Environmental Protection Agency and the state of Colorado.
That requires the center to conduct follow up short- and long-term testing to see if those levels stay the same or fluctuate. If levels continue to exceed 4 picoCuries, it’s up to the center’s board to decide how to proceed, Rice said.
Rice said Colorado ranks number seven among states for radon issues, with La Plata County historically showing elevated levels. She said 49 percent of homes tested require further action because of the presence of radon, with homes tested showing an average of 6.6 picoCuries per liter.
“Radon is something that’s a long-term build up,” Rice said. “It’s not something that is urgent in that it’s going to change someone’s life within the next week, two weeks. But it is a significant health risk if it’s ignored.”
According to the San Juan Basin Health Department, radon is a naturally occurring gas from the decay of uranium in the soil. It seeps through cracks in the foundations of buildings, posing a significant risk of long-term exposure.
The colorless, tasteless and odorless gas causes about 21,000 radon-induced lung cancer deaths in the U.S. every year – about 506 in Colorado and eight in La Plata County.
New laws for radon-resistant home construction became effective in the city of Durango this month, with similar requirements for construction in the county slated for this spring.
However, for Tom, the possibility of exposure was too much to return to a job she has held off and on for three years.
“I’m afraid of being in that building,” she said.
Tom quit her job Sunday. Later that day, the center announced enough teachers had refused to come to work that the center would be closed for the week. Tom said the center would not allow her to have her job back.
“I loved those kids,” she said. “And they wanted to keep it open and have more children get exposed. Some kids have been there since they were infants, babies. It’s not right.”
Several other child care centers were contacted for this story. The few that immediately returned calls said they are in the process of testing for radon at their facilities.
The Tri-County Head Start program operates in other La Plata County schools, including Florida Mesa, Needham and Park. The program offers other services in Archuleta and Montezuma counties.
jromeo@durangoherald.com
