WAUPACA COUNTY, WI – The Waupaca County Health Department is wrapping up a grant-funded initiative aimed at protecting residents from two invisible dangers found in homes: radon and carbon monoxide.
The department received a $10,000 Environmental Health Tracking Grant from the Wisconsin Department of Health Services to address environmental health concerns identified through local data. Rather than focusing on lead, as it had in a previous grant cycle, officials targeted two hazards that were showing troubling trends in Waupaca County.
“When we started diving into the data, what we had kind of identified was that radon and carbon monoxide had some concerning data points,” said Hailey Prosek, an epidemiologist with the Waupaca County Health Department.
Prosek said county officials found radon levels were consistently elevated in many homes, while the rate of unintentional carbon monoxide-related emergency department visits was more than twice the statewide average.
“I kind of refer to both of them as the invisible threats to health because you can’t see radon or carbon monoxide. You can’t smell it. You can’t taste it, but they’re lurking in our homes and they can seriously pose some serious health complications for individuals when exposed,” Prosek said.
To help reduce those risks, the Health Department distributed 315 free carbon monoxide detectors and 500 radon test kits throughout the county.
The grant program officially concludes on July 31, and Prosek said the department is now completing its final reporting requirements for the Wisconsin Department of Health Services.
“We are officially wrapping up the grant cycle and are in the final stages of doing some final data collection, seeing and assessing how things kind of went for us, and then we’ll report that back to DHS as the funders to let them know what we were able to achieve,” she said.
The official results from the latest round of radon testing are expected to be released in mid-August, giving health officials a clearer picture of radon exposure in homes across Waupaca County.
Prosek said the Healthy Homes initiative has already made a positive impact and hopes residents continue to view the Health Department as a resource.
“I would just say that we always want people to know that as a health department, we are here to support them and we are here to support their health and well-being,” Prosek said. “We were able to get some great stories out of this experience of just how doing this project has been impactful and helpful to our community members. That’s really what all of this is about. We want to help our community as best we can to be as healthy as possible.”
Health officials say the findings from the initiative will help guide future environmental health efforts throughout Waupaca County.
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