Radon poster contest opens to students

University of Nevada Cooperative Extension is inviting Nevada students to showcase their artistic talents and promote radon awareness by entering the 2014 Nevada Radon Poster Contest.

The contest is open to all children ages 9 to 14 years old enrolled in public, private, territorial, tribal, Department of Defense and home schools. Children can also enter through a sponsoring club, such as an art, computer, library, reading, science, scouting, youth or 4-H club.

Radon is a radioactive, colorless, odorless and tasteless gas that comes from the ground. It accumulates in homes and can cause lung cancer. This type of lung cancer is preventable, and the only way to know if a home has elevated levels is to test it.

The poster contest is part of the Nevada Radon Education Program and is sponsored by University of Nevada Cooperative Extension, the Nevada Division of Public and Behavioral Health, Kansas State University and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Cooperative Extension has been working to raise awareness of the dangers of radon in the home since 2007. They have also distributed radon test kits, and since 2008, 14,612 homes in Nevada have been tested with 3,118 finding potentially hazardous radon levels. Once detected, there are fairly easy, inexpensive ways to reduce the radon exposure to safe levels.

Posters in this year’s Nevada Radon Poster Contest should convey some of these important messages: 1) What is radon? 2) Where does radon come from? 3) How does radon get into our homes? 4) Radon can cause lung cancer, and 5) Test your home for radon. Posters will be judged on content accuracy, visual communication of the topic, reproducibility and originality. They can be created with crayon, markers, paint, collage, pencil, photographs or computer graphics. There is no fee to enter, but each child is limited to one entry. Entries must be received by Oct. 31 at the Washoe County Office of Cooperative Extension, 4955 Energy Way, Reno, 89502-4105.

Cash prizes for the top five entries are $75 for first place, $60 for second, $45 for third and $25 for fourth and fifth place. The top three entries are also awarded cash prizes for their teachers or sponsoring organization’s representative and are entered in the national contest. National contest winners receive $1,000 for first place, $600 for second, $400 for third and $400 for special online voting recognition. National winners will receive recognition, and the posters will be reproduced and distributed nationally to promote radon awareness.

To better help students comprehend the dangers of radon and the rules of the contest, the Nevada Radon Education Program will offer radon presentations to interested school or community groups in Washoe County, Douglas County and Carson City. Interested groups should contact Jamie Roice-Gomes, the radon education coordinator at University of Nevada Cooperative Extension, at 775-336-0252 or roicej@unce.unr.edu to schedule a presentation or for more information on the contest. For more information on the dangers of radon and the Nevada Radon Education Program, visit www.RadonNV.com or call the Radon Hotline at 1-888-Radon10 (888-723-6610).