"The Enemy Within"

"The Enemy Within"

Cutting a stark contrast to the Exxon Valdez oil spill and the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, subtler threats figuratively - and perhaps literally - threatened the foundations of the American family. Radon, a colorless and odorless radioactive gas, posed a creeping, insidious danger to households. Able to enter through any orifice or crack in building walls, floors, pumps, and joints, the gas represented the kind of gradual environmental hazard that received less media attention than the huge catastrophes. Nevertheless, science did not dismiss its severity - in the '80s, the link between radon exposure and lung cancer was clear.

National Geographic magazine, April 1987

National Geographic

1987-4