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New organization promotes radon testing

ELIZABETH (KWGN) - A man from Elizabeth wants others to know just how deadly radon gas can be.

Buffalo Kaplinski lost his wife to lung cancer just two months ago. He believes the fatal diagnosis came after dangerous levels of radon gas seeped into the couples home.

"After you've lived in a place for long time you don't think you could have radon," says Buffalo. "It turns out that was the problem I had a reading of 50 in the crawl space."

Radon gas is the second most common cause of lung cancer next to smoking. The EPA recommends levels of 4 pico curies per liter be taken care of if detected in the home. The Kaplinski's home had 12 times the recommended amount.

Radon gas is produced from the radioactive decay of uranium that occurs naturally in rocks and soils. Colorado has 65 counties that are considered to be at high risk of having dangerous levels of radon.

Vicky Kaplinski was a very healthy woman who ate organic food and loved the outdoors. Her husband says she was the healthier of the two. Her death came just two months after her diagnosis.

" I'm 99 percent sure that's what caused her lung cancer was radon gas."

Buffalo has since made his home radon free. He had a mitigation team come out and install a fan that would remove the radon from his crawl space. He hopes by sharing his story others will become more aware about the deadly dangers of radon.

"The finality of it is just overwhelming, you feel like everything has just caved in on you."

You can purchase radon detection kits for as little as $10 at local hardware stores.